The Collision of Two Cultures - Implications of Cultural Values and Beliefs on Caring Concepts Abstract This paper is a personal response to Anne Fadiman’s book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. The paper includes a summary of the book‚ an overall impression of the reader‚ a discussion of three major themes evident in the book‚ and a description of a situation from the book and how the situation could be handled differently using references and material learned in 3020 Transcultural
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1. The traditional Hmong birth practices are so different from the birth practices we use here in the United States. Foua’s previous child births before Lia were very different. She gave birth inside her home‚ with completely no help. She also cut and tied the umbilical cord with a string. Afterwards they buried the placentas as a tradition to their beliefs. Now‚ with Lia’s birth she was in a public hospital where she was attended by doctors and given medicine. It was also sanitary there‚ unlike
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1. In her critique of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down‚ Janelle Taylor argues that Anne Fadiman’s portrayal of Hmong culture is problematic. Please explain how Fadiman’s story is problematic. In your discussion‚ be sure to consider: • How is the story set up as a tragedy? That is‚ if both the parents and the doctors are uncompromising in their quest for Lia’s well-being‚ how do they wind up colliding so tragically? • How are Hmong culture and Western medicine used as explanations for
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The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down In the book‚ The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down‚ Anne Fadiman tells us the story of a little girl named Lia Lee‚ caught between the differences of two cultures. The differences in Lia’s parents’ knowledge‚ abilities‚ and understanding of the culture they were surrounded by and the rationalized facts that Western medicine and its culture provide bring us to the borderland of the two. When these two cultures meet Lia’s life is put in danger‚ not
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care system due to difference in medical remedies and the language spoken. I know first-hand that my mother would prefer to have a Ghanaian physician‚ as opposed to the general white American doctor. Anne Fadiman wrote a successful award-winning book called‚ The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down‚ which highlights how the cultural differences between the Hmong culture and American medicine jeopardized the health of a little girl named Lia Lee. The story brings into light the topic of Medical anthropology
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“The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down‚” tells a story about a Hmong child Lia Lee‚ who suffers her first epileptic seizure at three months of age. Her treatment becomes difficult to go through because of her parents‚ Nao Kao and Foua‚ inability to speak English. They cannot speak to the doctors and many problems follow because of it. It started when Lia was three months old when her sister had slammed the front door. Quickly after‚ “Lia’s eyes rolled up‚ her arms jerked over her head‚ and she
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The spirit catches you and you fall down Introduction: “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down’’ by Anne Fadiman represents true story of the epileptic Hmong girl and her family displaced from China to the USA. She suffers severe grand mal seizures and eventually becomes vegetative for the rest of her life. Lia Lee’s story was a poignant example that emphasizes the cultural barriers between modern and traditional cultures through their approaches to the life‚ which results in complete destruction
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differently and that cultural beliefs are not the only factors that influence differences in opinion. The community‚ environment‚ and even one’s friends can also contribute to the way a person interprets things. One example is‚ “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down‚” a book about the struggles faced by the Lee family after emigrating from Laos to America. Foua delivered her 14th child‚ only this
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For the second reflection paper I chose to write about the book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. When I started reading this book‚ I had no idea what I was going to read about. I learned many new concepts on the culture of Hmong and their views. A brief section of the book also was about how they came to America and the experiences they had while doing so. I learned that there was a secret war in Laos that caused a tragedy among the Hmong people leaving them to abandon their homes in the
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The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: Cultural Clash This book focuses on the “clash” of cultures that occurs between the Lee family‚ immigrants to the US from Laos‚ and the doctors that treat their daughter‚ Lia‚ who has been diagnosed with epilepsy. Lia’s parents‚ Foua and Nao Kao believe that Lia has fallen ill because she has “lost her soul”. This clash of ideas highlights one of the problems that the Lee’s faced when dealing with the medical community in the US – the Lee’s believed
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