WEEK 6 Community Nurse Culture and health.

Culture is defined by the behavior of a group of people in society, believes, and practices. Culture distinguishes one group from another. Culture is taught to young children as soon as they are aware of their surroundings. In Africa, it is so much deep-rooted that it is difficult to make people turn from their culture even though it is harmful. For example, genital mutilation, as destructive as it is to a girl child, many African communities practice it to date. However, culture is becoming dynamic daily due to people’s migration (Erviti, 2013).

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In my culture, illness prevention was done by implanting traditional medicine in parts of the body. Another was by boiling soup from animal bone and wild herbs that were believed to protect someone from illnesses. (Fulcher, 2013).

In my culture, it is believed that illness comes from witchcraft or curses from the ancestors. In case of illness, a witch doctor would be called and perform libation. The libation would show whether the sickness is from witchcraft or the ancestors. If it were from mysticism, the witch doctor would make some prayer to the god’s invoking them to send curses to the person who bewitched the sick. Some rituals would be performed, cutting some parts of the body, either forehead and implanting traditional medicine, will take place (Hollins, 2009). A curse rituals will be performed where a spotless lamb will be slaughtered, and blood sprinkled in the house of the starting from the entrance to the bedroom. The invocation of the ancestors’ spirit will be done as blood is sprinkled to appease the dead.

In my culture, when someone dies, all members of the family are shaved after the burial. If the dead were elderly, he is buried at the entrance of his homestead. A sheep is slaughtered, and blood sprinkled all over the compound to send away the evil spirits from the dead.

References

Erviti, J. (2013). Culture, bodies, and the sociology of health. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 15(2), 246-248. doi:10.1080/13691058.2012.736231

Fulcher, K. (2013). Queer youth suicide, culture, and identity: Unliveable lives? Culture, Health & Sexuality, 15(3), 387-389. doi:10.1080/13691058.2012.760219

Hollins, S. (2009). Religions, culture, and healthcare: A practical handbook for use in healthcare environments. Radcliffe Publishing.