This translates well into medical care as well. Even educated American Indians are treated by most doctors especially those with no knowledge about Indigenous cultures (even if they are living close by), as if they are ignorant and have no knowledge.
In my conferences, I like to give the example of the Leader of the Indigenous people of Andaman Islands, who on 24th December 2004, noticed that the big animals and birds were seeking shelter higher up in the land. He exhorted his people to follow the animals for he was taught that the animals and birds can sense something the new comers to the islands from India could not, including meteorologists! His indigenous wisdom saved his people, none of whom perished, but thousands of Immigrants from India to Andaman Islands perished. While the so called enlightened governments call for assimilation of indigenous people, it is always in the terms of the outsiders and not of the insiders! The assimilated tribe of Andamanese who lived among the Immigrants also perished!
Awareness of the warning signs saved many lives on Simeulue, an island off
the west coast of Aceh – just seven people died there in the tsunami compared to
167,000 on Aceh itself.
The hilly geography of the island helped, but the islanders also knew what to
do thanks to a local storytelling tradition called smong. According to
a Unesco
report, smong stories told to children often ended with a warning: “If a
strong tremor occurs, and if the sea withdraws soon after, run to the hills, for
the sea will soon rush ashore.”
TO MOTIVATE PEOPLE TO CHANGE THEIR WAYS OF LIFE, ESPECIALLY IN THESE DAYS OF GALLOPING OBESITY AND OVERCONSUMPTION OF UNHEALTHY FOOD,
RESPECT LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
Original Blogger URL: https://medicoanthropologist.blogspot.com/2014/12/cultural-knowledge-can-save-lives.html