Organ Transplantation and Native Peoples: An Interdisciplinary Approach (SpringerBriefs in Public Health)

This book presents important concepts from medical and socio-cultural anthropology to health professionals working with organ transplantation involving indigenous populations. Written by an anthropologist and a nephrologist working at the Brazilian Amazon region, it presents an interdisciplinary approach merging perspectives from medical and socio-cultural anthropology, social epidemiology and clinical medicine to blend philosophical concerns around tissue and organ exchange with transplant-related initiatives in order to help health professionals develop care protocols that take into account the specific cultures of indigenous populations. The approach proposed in this book is based on the assumption that there are other concepts of bodies, personhood, health, sickness, and collectivity implicated in processes of organ transplantation and health care in general that must be taken into consideration beyond strictly biomedical perspectives. Such cultural aspects also imply challenges in terms of bioethics and legislation, given the need to respect indigenous cultures. So, in order to offer health professionals practical insights, the book presents a review of the literature available about experiences of organ transplantation in ethnically diverse countries and how the professionals involved have addressed this diversity respecting these groups from a cultural, ethical, and epidemiological point of view. Organ Transplantation and Native Peoples: An Interdisciplinary Approach is primarily aimed at being a practical tool for health professionals working with indigenous populations, but will also be of interest to researchers in different fields of the social and health sciences, such as medical anthropology, public health, nursing, bioethics and epidemiology. Acknowledgments 7 Contents 8 About the Authors 9 Chapter 1: Introduction: Thinking About Transplants from an Interdisciplinary Viewpoint 10 1.1 Getting Started 10 1.1.1 Thinking Interdisciplinary 10 1.1.2 “I Had Never Really Thought About It Before” 12 1.1.3 When a Body Is Not Just a Body 15 1.1.4 Some Clarification Before We Move On 17 References 20 Chapter 2: Looking Over the Shoulders of Giants 21 2.1 About the Method: Where to Start 21 2.1.1 Two or Three Words About How These Concerns Were Born 21 2.2 A Little About the Comparative Method 25 2.2.1 Some Concerns 25 2.2.2 Comparing: Why Is This a Good Option? 29 2.3 Transplants in Native People: What Have We to Learn? 31 2.3.1 What Is to Come 31 2.3.2 Some Challenges to Be Overcome 34 2.3.3 What to Do? 40 2.3.4 What Awaits Us 41 References 42 Chapter 3: Native Corporeality and Organ Transplantation 45 3.1 Working with Other Cultures: What Now? 45 3.2 Talking About Health in Intercultural Contexts 46 3.2.1 Two or Three Words on Intercultural Health Communication in Native Contexts 46 3.2.2 “The Virus Is the Health of the Disease” 48 3.2.3 What Makes a Native? 50 3.2.4 Untying the Knots 55 3.2.5 An Important Note Before We Move On 58 References 60 Chapter 4: Conclusion: Merging Horizons 62 References 64 Index 65