An ethnographic approach to the concepts of health and disease in the Turkana tribe: a project to improve the health of the nomads of the Ilemi Triangle, Kenya

José Javier Cardós García; Manuel Lillo Crespo; Andrés Climent Rubio; Emiliano Hernández Urrutia; Beatriz Mejias Moreno

doi:10.18294/sc.2016.787

An ethnographic approach to the concepts of health and disease in the Turkana tribe: a project to improve the health of the nomads of the Ilemi Triangle, Kenya

José Javier Cardós García Degree in Nursing. Master’s Degree in Accident and Emergency. Nurse Clinic Vistahermosa, Alicante, Spain , Manuel Lillo Crespo PhD in Anthropology of Health and Nursing. Associate Professor, Department of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Alicante, Spain , Andrés Climent Rubio Degree in Nursing. Nurse, Diocese of Lodwar, Kenya , Emiliano Hernández Urrutia Diploma in Nursing. Nurse, Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust, Rotherham, England , Beatriz Mejias Moreno Degree in Nursing. Master in Compulsory Secondary Education and High School Degree Teacher Training, Vocational Training and Language Teacher Ttraining. Nurse, Clinic Vistahermosa, Alicante, Spain

Published: 24 June 2016

https://doi.org/10.18294/sc.2016.787

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Abstract

This paper aims to provide a broad view of the Turkana tribe of the Ilemi Triangle in northwestern Kenya, especially regarding the way the members of this nomadic ethnic group understand and shape their own construct of health and disease. It is based in an ethnographic study carried out in July and August 2014, including participant observation of 15 villages of the Turkana tribe, formal interviews and in-depth interviews carried out with the collaboration of two translators of the tribe and a nurse. Field notes as well videos and audio records were captured and transcribed for later analysis. Among the primary results of this study, it should be highlighted that the concepts of both health and disease differ greatly from the western approach that external projects bring with them a priori and it is likely that the lack of adherence to these projects is related to the scant cultural knowledge regarding such constructs on the part of the health professionals.

Keywords: Anthropology, Cultural, Ethnic Groups, Nomad, Health-Disease Process, Kenya

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