The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
Steven Harker
Nevada State College
Abstract
The book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Ann Fadiman writes a story of a Hmong family's experience within the American health care system based around a sick infant with seizures. In the story Ann Fadiman explains how the Lee’s and their children, at first were persecuted in Laos, she then goes on to explain how they came to America via their trials and tribulations. The Lee’s came to live in a Hmong community in Merced California. Shortly after their arrival they gave birth to Lia. It is the treatment of Lia's seizure disorder in the United States that is the main focal point of the book. In this paper I will try to explain certain points, these being differences in the cultures between Hmong and Americans, western health care versus folk care medicine, religious beliefs of the Hmong people, attitude perceptions about the Lee’s and their raising of Lia, and finally what I feel the author was trying to prove.
The Hmong are a minority ethnic group in several countries.]. The Hmong are known in China as the Miao, a designation that embraces several different ethnic groups. Some Hmong consider this word to be derogatory while others use it to describe themselves. Many wars were fought, and eventually many Hmong were pushed from China into Burma, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. The history of the Hmong people is difficult to trace; since they have an oral tradition but not a written one, where other people have encountered them. Hmong history has been passed down through legends and ritual ceremonies from one generation to another.
However, throughout the recorded history, the Hmong have remained identifiable as Hmong because they have maintained their own language, customs, and ways of life while adopting the ways of the country in which they live. In the 1960s and '70s many Hmong were secretly recruited by the CIA to fight against communism during the... [continues]
Steven Harker
Nevada State College
Abstract
The book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Ann Fadiman writes a story of a Hmong family's experience within the American health care system based around a sick infant with seizures. In the story Ann Fadiman explains how the Lee’s and their children, at first were persecuted in Laos, she then goes on to explain how they came to America via their trials and tribulations. The Lee’s came to live in a Hmong community in Merced California. Shortly after their arrival they gave birth to Lia. It is the treatment of Lia's seizure disorder in the United States that is the main focal point of the book. In this paper I will try to explain certain points, these being differences in the cultures between Hmong and Americans, western health care versus folk care medicine, religious beliefs of the Hmong people, attitude perceptions about the Lee’s and their raising of Lia, and finally what I feel the author was trying to prove.
The Hmong are a minority ethnic group in several countries.]. The Hmong are known in China as the Miao, a designation that embraces several different ethnic groups. Some Hmong consider this word to be derogatory while others use it to describe themselves. Many wars were fought, and eventually many Hmong were pushed from China into Burma, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. The history of the Hmong people is difficult to trace; since they have an oral tradition but not a written one, where other people have encountered them. Hmong history has been passed down through legends and ritual ceremonies from one generation to another.
However, throughout the recorded history, the Hmong have remained identifiable as Hmong because they have maintained their own language, customs, and ways of life while adopting the ways of the country in which they live. In the 1960s and '70s many Hmong were secretly recruited by the CIA to fight against communism during the... [continues]
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