Center for Interpretive and Qualitative Research
(CIQR -- "seeker")*
Feb. 22, 2001
PRESENTATION: BY DR. LISA LOPEZ LEVERS, COUNSELING, PSYCHOLOGY,
AND SPECIAL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT, SCHOOL OF EDUCATION PRESENTATION
TITLE: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF TRADITIONAL HEALING
AND REHABILITATION SERVICES IN SOUTHERN AFRICA: CROSSCULTURAL IMPLICATIONS
ABSTRACT: This study provides an ethnographic analysis of traditional healing practices and rehabilitation services in Lesotho, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe. While rehabilitation services delivery systems are emerging in Lesotho and Swaziland and exist at a somewhat more advanced stage in Zimbabwe, it has been difficult to assess -- based on limited available information -- whether the infrastructure for those services is linked more closely to traditional healing methods or to the modern methods endorsed by the Western donor organizations that provide assistance in those countries and that initiated some of the rehabilitation services there. The analysis of data gathered in this investigation is based on a combination of multiple case study and participatory action research strategies designed to close in on the interaction of traditional healing practices with disabilities and rehabilitation services in southern African culture. Such a preliminary analysis generates a knowledge base that supports further analysis of the social construction of disability in relationship to paradigms of illness and disease as elaborated in the ethnomedical literature. The outcome of such an analysis supports the consideration and development of ethnorehabilitation and psycho-ecological pluralism, constructs that are identified as results of this study and that warrant further investigation and explication.
Minutes
DR. LISA LOPEZ LEVERS, COUNSELING, PSYCHOLOGY, AND SPECIAL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT, SCHOOL OF EDUCATION, gave an interesting talk entitled "AN ETHNOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF TRADITIONAL HEALING AND REHABILITATION SERVICES IN SOUTHERN AFRICA: CROSSCULTURAL IMPLICATIONS." Dr. Lever's talk was accompanied by slides. It was followed by a discussion with Dr. Levers concerning the methodology of her research and of her experiences in southern Africa. The talk was preceded by a meaning wherein we discussed the coming CIQR panel discussion and the text of the CIQR brochure.
