Fears of Illness Progression and the Production of Risk: Two Ethnographic Case Studies in Northeast Thailand

Authors

  • Jen Pylypa Carleton University

Keywords:

health services, Thailand, women, children, cervical cancer, fruit fever

Abstract

This article considers common themes emerging from
two ethnographic research projects in Northeast Thailand: one
on women's reproductive health concerns, and another on chil-
dren's fevers. Both projects revealed that illness experiences
were substantially shaped by particular perceptions of risk -
especially fears that a mild illness would progress to a fatal
one - exacerbated by feelings of social vulnerability in clinical
encounters. The analysis examines how experiences of risk were
constructed in the context öf multiple, intersecting forces, rang-
ing from "ethnomedical" perceptions to the impact of health
education and prevention programs, pharmaceutical market-
ing, and social inequalities between patients and health
providers.

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Published

2022-03-11

How to Cite

Pylypa, J. (2022). Fears of Illness Progression and the Production of Risk: Two Ethnographic Case Studies in Northeast Thailand. Anthropologica, 53(1), 129–143. Retrieved from https://cas-sca.journals.uvic.ca/index.php/anthropologica/article/view/991

Issue

Vol. 53 No. 1 (2011): Changes of Place: Interrogating the Continuities and Disjunctures of Movement

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2011 Jen Pylypa

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