Healthcare and Spirituality: A Traditional African Perspective
Medical practice and healthcare in indigenous sub-Saharan African culture are established on beliefs, values, and practices which are profoundly linked to a spiritual and holistic worldview. From its interpretation of the human body, health, disease, to its diagnostic approach, every aspect is hinge...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2021
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| In: |
Annali di studi religiosi
Year: 2021, Volume: 22, Pages: 255-277 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | Medical practice and healthcare in indigenous sub-Saharan African culture are established on beliefs, values, and practices which are profoundly linked to a spiritual and holistic worldview. From its interpretation of the human body, health, disease, to its diagnostic approach, every aspect is hinged on and shaped by a spiritual conception of the universe. According to this outlook, the universe is a continuum of natural and supernatural entities such as minerals, plants, animals, humans, ancestors, spirits, gods, and God, which jointly play a fundamental role in health and healing. These beings do not exist as independent atoms, but are interrelated and interdependent on each other. As a consequence of this relational logic, a patient is not merely an extension of his/her community, but also an extension of the entire universe. Hence, health is considered as a harmonious balance, a good relationship, between the various components of the cosmos and disease is viewed as the collapse of harmony. In this paper, I argue that from this indigenous African outlook, not all diseases are empirically distinct entities which can be identified through modern scientific diagnostic equipment, there are also supernatural or para-experimental diseases, which fall beyond the spectrum of modern scientific, evidence-based, medical rationality. Hence, no therapy can be considered complete if it does not encompass the biological, social, and spiritual dimensions of disease and health. |
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| ISSN: | 2284-3892 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Annali di studi religiosi
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.14598/Annali_studi_relig_22202120 |
