John M. Janzen 
The Quest for Therapy in Lower Zaire [EPUB ebook] 

In this book, Dr. John M. Janzen describes patterns of healing among the Ba Kongo of Lower Zaire in Africa, who, like many peoples elsewhere, utilize cosmopolitan medicine alongside traditional healing practices. What criteria, he asks, determine the choice of the alternative therapies? And what is their institutional interrelationship?


In seeking answers, he analyzes case histories and cultural contexts to explore what social transactions, decisionmaking, illness and therapy classifications, and resource allocations are used in the choice of therapy by the ill, their kinfolk, friends, asociates, and specialized practitioners.


From the Preface:


This book presents an ‘on the ground’ ethnographic account of how medical clients of one region of Lower Zaire diagnose illness, select therapies, and evaluate treatments, a process we call ‘therapy management.’ The book is intended to clarify a phenomenon of which central African clients have long been cognizant, namely, that medical systems are used in combination. Our study is aimed primarily at readers interested in the practical issues of medical decision-making in an African country, the cultural content of symptoms, and the dynamics of medical pluralism, that is, the existence in a single society of differently designed and conceived medical systems.



In this book, Dr. John M. Janzen describes patterns of healing among the Ba Kongo of Lower Zaire in Africa, who, like many peoples elsewhere, utilize cosmopolitan medicine alongside traditional healing practices. What criteria, he asks, determine the choic

Table of Content

List of Illustrations

Foreword, by Charles Leslie

Preface


PART ONE: THE AREA OF STUDY

1. The Human Setting of Healing in Lower Zaire

2. A History of Medical Pluralism in Lower Zaire


PART TWO: STUDIES IN KONGO ILLNESS AND THERAPY

An Introductory Note

3. Disease of God, Disease of Man

4. Strife in the Family As Cause of Child’s Illness

5. A History of Madness

6. The Professional as Kinsman

7. Marriage and the Father’s Blessing

8. The Clan as Patient


PART THREE: THE LOGIC OF THERAPEUTIC SYSTEMS

An Introductory Note

9. The Jural Status of Therapy in Kongo Society

10. Interpreting Symptoms

11. Contemporary Systems of Popular Medicine in Lower Zaire

12. Toward an Integrated Medicine


Appendix A. Episodes of Case Studies Reported in Chapters 3-8

Appendix B. Herbarium of Medicinal Plants

Bibliography of Works Cited

Glossary-Index

About the author

John M. Janzen is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Kansas. His books include Lemba 1650-1930 (1982) and Ngoma: Discourses of Healing in Central and Southern Africa (California, 1992).