Fadiman Essay

living in Ecuador’s Mache-Chindul reserve. Maria Fadiman did a study on Cultivated Food Plants: Culture and Gendered Spaces of The Colonists and the Chachi in Ecuador, Fadiman basically compared the colonists of Ecuador and the indigenous Chachi based on the how, what, and who cultivated foods in both societies. The Chachi appear to be an agricultural society, they tend to domesticate their animals and have farms close or distant from home. Fadiman found that in colonist societies the woman focused

treating Lia Lee, though. Her parents thought that they could just change the prescription based on what they thought was right for their daughter. However, this was considered child abuse, which would require actions with the child protective services (Fadiman, 1997). Albeit, the American health care system strives to not just treat and prescribe medication but also “involve satisfying the communication gap, interpersonal relationship, counselling and education regarding the disease,” (Ganesh, A. & Ganesh

Written by Anne Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is a novel that details a story of cultural barriers, knowledge, family, and hope amidst challenging circumstances. The novel follows the story of Lia Lee, the fourteenth child of Foua Yang and Nao Kao Lee. The Lees are a Hmong family. So, they are “among the 150,000 Hmong who have fled Laos since their country fell to communist forces in 1975” (Fadiman 5). Of all the Lee children, Lia was the only child born in the United States;

carry their name and be a part of that family. Girls since childhood are taught that the house they were born in and are raised in is not their actual house. Their house will be where their husband lives. In Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman wrote about how a girl’s placenta is buried under her parent’s bed. However, a boy’s placenta is buried near the base of the house’s central wooden pillar because in this pillar a male spirit who is a domestic guardian, held the roof up. That pillar

epilepsy as power; “Their seizures are thought to be evidence that they have the power to perceive things other people cannot see, as well as facilitating their entry into trances, a prerequisite for their journeys into the realm of the unseen” (Fadiman, 1998, p.21). Right at this moment is where you can tell conflict is going to occur.

awkward interactions she has with the Hmong community. Fadiman meets a psychologist named Sukey Walker who helps her realize that by being respectful and having a good translator she could earn the trust of the Hmong community. Fadiman brings a translator named Max Ying Xiong to her meetings with the Lees which helps her gain trust because her translator was related to the Lees through marriage. Throughout the numerous meetings they had together, Fadiman builds a close relationship with Nao Koa and Foua

and the healthcare providers (Gengler & Jarrell, 2015). Fadiman (1997) recounted the conflict between a refugee family from Laos and a small hospital in California over the care of Lia Lee, a Hmong girl with severe epilepsy, in her book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. Despite both sides wanting the best care for Lia, the lack of cross-cultural communication between her Hmong family and her American doctors, lead to her tragedy (Fadiman, 1997). Awareness regarding the disparities in culture

Anne Fadiman shows how different the Hmong culture is from American culture and the transition they have to go through. The food in Hmong culture can be seen in the story of Lia Lee’s birth at Merced Community Medical Center. The rituals followed in terms of food

questions like the choice between life and death create extreme conflict. Anne Fadiman accounts a young woman by the name of Teresa Callahan who really is between the choice of life and death, “I [the doctor] told her over and over again that if the tube ruptured at home she might die before she could get to the hospital. I called her husband and her mother and her father and grandparents, and they all said nope” (Anne Fadiman 71). What is amazing to think that in a

“…you can miss a lot by sticking to the point” (Fadiman 13). The Hmong is a proud group that withstood a long history of trials and tribulations. Throughout these hardships, they managed to keep their customs and cultures alive, even in the face of adversity. This adversity had many faces. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down shows us this in the form of healthcare. Medicine has the power to heal, but it is not one size fits all and greatly differs between cultures. Hmong tradition and culture