The cultural collision between the medical practitioners and the Hmong community
The cultural collision between the medical practitioners and the Hmong community proved the difference in how medical care was perceived. The Hmong community does not believe that illnesses were just physical but also spiritual. When Liu is taken to the hospital with epilepsy, the American doctors recommend drugs, but the seizures fail to stop. The parents would not administer the medication on Lee, who continued to0 experience seizures. The parents did not believe that the condition she was going through was a physical one but which was influenced by the spirit catches you, and you fall. Fadiman states that “In order to keep Lia’s condition from deteriorating further, the Lees stepped up their program of traditional medicine” (110). According to the author, the shamanism medicalization was a traditional way the immigrant Hmong community was able to exercise healing in what the American practitioners saw as improper administering of drugs. The distinction that was present in how medical procedures were supposed to be done saw the American practitioners differ significantly with the Hmong parents who seemed not to take keen in their children’s health. The physical health of the Hmong community correlated with spiritual health, and separating the two was not practical. Lia’s parents and all other Hmong parents’ in fact, cared so much about their children’s health that the y spent a lot of money in purchasing traditional herbs. The cultural differences were conflicting in terms of medicalization where to Hmong community; souls were incorporated as part and parcel of t6he healing process. The shamanism medicalization was unheard of by American medical practitioners, while Lia’s immigrant parents had much trust in the traditional healing process because they believed the souls of the dead communicated with the living and abnormality had a more spiritual cause than the normality the American practitioners wanted to portray. The failure of Lia seizures to stop even when she was taken from her parents confirmed to her parents that shamanism medication was the only way their daughter could heal.
Ethnocentrism impacted both the physical and spiritual health of the Hmong community and the hesitant to absorb modern medical care. The community had lived away from modernization, and they all saw the mountains as their original homeland and trusted their culture and traditional health care more. The difficulty in accepting modern medical care was facilitated by the demographic factor that they had known forever. The Hmong ethnic identity was not altered even by assimilation, and they remained faithful and pure in their traditions away from dominant Chinese culture (120). The ability of the community to preserve its heritage and superiority warranted its current behavior of refusing to conform to the westernization medical system. The vast difference between the Hmong and the contemporary world made it hard to understand which health system was most effective for Lia because Lee attributed the recovery of Lia to txiv neeb (Fadiman 116). The success story was attributed to the ethnicity beliefs, and the conflicts between the local system and the immigrants from Lao was\separated by the big gap in traditions and customs. Medicalization played a huge factor because the Hmong had a spiritual approach towards health, which was hard for the doctors to understand. The history of Hmong depicts resilience and superiority, especially in World War One, which means they had a good number of productive people. The trust in traditional ways of healing, such as shamanism, remained to be central in their culture. The ethnic background of Lee’s family was significant in explaining why there were many disagreements with the American doctors in terms of seeking treatment for their ailing child. The physical health is paramount in the modern health system while for the Hmong community spiritual health is also critical