Wow! eBook
Wellness Beyond Words: Maya Compositions of Speech and Silence in Medical Care
Author(s): T.S. Harvey (Author)
- Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
- Publication Date: 15 Nov. 2012
- Edition: Illustrated
- Language: English
- Print length: 264 pages
- ISBN-10: 0826352731
- ISBN-13: 9780826352736
Book Description
In Maya medical encounters, the number of participants, the plurality of their voices, and the cooperative linguistic strategies that they employ to compose illness narratives challenge conventional analytical techniques and call into question some basic assumptions about doctor-patient interactions. Harvey’s innovative approach, combining the “”ethnography of polyphony”” and its complementary technique, the “”polyphonic score,”” reveals the complex interplay of speaking and silence during medical encounters, sociolinguistic patterns that help us avoid clinical complications connected to medical miscommunication.
Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
Responding to the need for in-depth ethnographic studies in cultural and communicative competence, this anthropological account of Maya language use in health care in highland Guatemala explores some of the cultural and linguistic factors that can complicate communication in the practice of medicine.
