1
30
1
-
http://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/7/102/images-1.jpg
6f43efd1438ec138f40fdf20ba0718a3
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Bolivia
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
#Humanitiesinclass
Description
An account of the resource
This collection includes contributions from members of the National Humanities Center's education project Humanities in Class. The project aims to develop a deeper portfolio of curricular materials and help set standards for humanities education that highlight differences among humanities disciplines.
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Human Ecology of Health
Description
An account of the resource
Walking the cobble-stone streets of a Bolivian village, I witnessed how a new clinic in a medically underserved area hadn’t made much of an impact. I was visiting a remote outpost to better understand the challenges in promoting health in poor Latin American communities. People come here only as a last resort because of the relative high costs and they are suspicious and reluctant to enter a facility staffed by foreigners. Only two came to see the doctor during the three days we were there. Likewise, latrines build by the clinic hadn’t improved sanitation because nobody uses them for cultural reasons.
By contrast, in another rural area, a woman with less than a fourth grade education has had a great impact as community health promoter. Because she grew up in the village, she is trusted and understands the problems the people face. Every 15 minutes it seemed liked another person up at her door, quite a contrast to the clinic. No outbreaks of childhood diseases have occurred since she began inoculating children. While limited in formal medical education, she has been trained to understand the importance of clean water and sanitation. More importantly, she had empowered other people in ways to improve their health.
Witnessing both projects created dissonance. While medical knowledge is necessary, more is required. I kept asking myself if the clinic was really addressing the needs of the underprivileged.
While my background in the humanities spans numerous perspectives, putting the various disciplinary puzzle pieces together in an applied manner hadn’t occurred. On the flight back to the United States, I began to recognize what is more formally referred to as the human ecology of health that examines aspects of population, habitat, and behavior. The clinic physician and accompanying nurses had medical training that allows them to understand disease pathogens, prescribe medicines and suture wounds. Yet they didn’t understand daily lives of the people they served. The community health worker, by contrast, was trusted and accepted by the community. She knew how to communicate to them and understand their body language. It was if a light bulb had been turned on in my head in which I realized that no single discipline had a monopoly on understanding. Solving problems that I had just observed in Bolivia were no longer a theoretical exercise, but I now realized that both breadth and depth in the liberal arts were needed to address real world problems.
Subject
The topic of the resource
While my background in the humanities spans numerous perspectives, putting the various disciplinary puzzle pieces together in an applied manner hadn’t occurred. On the flight back to the United States, I began to recognize what is more formally referred to as the human ecology of health that examines aspects of population, habitat, and behavior. The clinic physician and accompanying nurses had medical training that allows them to understand disease pathogens, prescribe medicines and suture wounds. Yet they didn’t understand daily lives of the people they served. The community health worker, by contrast, was trusted and accepted by the community. She knew how to communicate to them and understand their body language. It was if a light bulb had been turned on in my head in which I realized that no single discipline had a monopoly on understanding. Solving problems that I had just observed in Bolivia were no longer a theoretical exercise, but I now realized that both breadth and depth in the liberal arts were needed to address real world problems.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1989
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
<a href="http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/education-programs/humanities-in-class-guide-thinking-learning-in-humanities/">Edward Kinman</a>, age 59, Professor of Geography and Coordinator of the Virginia Geographic Alliance
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
human-ecology-of-health
Bolivia
Community Health Services
Health Promotion
Human Ecology
Interdisciplinarity
Local Knowledge
Medical Personnel
Professors
Public Health
Transcultural Medical Care
Villages