1st Edition
Culture, Health and Development in South Asia Arsenic Poisoning in Bangladesh
1. Introduction: The paradise poisoned 2. Arsenic poisoning: Culture, health and development perspectives 3. Arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh: Causes, health impacts and healthcare services 4. Ghaa: The social construction of arsenicosis 5. Arsenicosis as ghaa and health-seeking behaviour 6. Arsenic mitigation strategies: Why do they fail? 7. Conclusion: The primacy of culture in health and development
Biography
M. Saiful Islam is an anthropologist and Assistant Professor of Development Studies at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. His research interests include medical anthropology; cultural dimensions of health and illness; health, environment, and sustainable development.
'This book carries a timely intervention into biomedical discourses about arsenicosis, billed as a long-standing national health disaster in Bangladesh. Relying on ethnographic work the author privileges patients' perspectives by documenting how the biomedical reality of arsenicosis has been vernacularized as ghaa in practice. The turn to alternative healing to manage ghaa suggests strongly both the therapeutic and cultural limits of biomedicine. The book carries insights about the need for community ownership and engagement in order to imagine sustainable and viable solutions to the problem of arsenic poisoning. I would unhesitatingly recommend this as a ‘must read’ book for medical anthropology students and scholars as well as health practitioners and policy makers.'
Vineeta Sinha, National University of Singapore, Singapore
