Teenagers of the tundra : the teenage experience among the Naskapi of Kawawachikamach, Quebec

The teenage years. This period of physiological and social change is perhaps one of the most fascinating and misunderstood phases in our life cycle. It is even more complex when we consider the effects of the introduction of this stage into a culture which previously had its own unique category of youth. This thesis examines such a development as it exists among the Naskapi people of Kawawachikamach, Quebec. -- Many studies dealing with aboriginal teens contend that these young people are currently experiencing an "identity crisis", or that they are "between two worlds" (i.e. Native and White), ideas which are couched within Western theoretical perspectives of the adolescent identity. However, the situation among the Naskapi involves more than two competing cultural influences or individual struggles for identity. The phase of Naskapi adolescence itself has changed, as witnessed by the introduction of the 'teenage' stage. However, there are culturally specific factors at play which can account for how adolescence is experienced among the Naskapi, and why they do not go through an identity crisis as the adolescent is seen to do in Western models. As I will show, it is the complex interplay between the newly emerging social category of the 'teenager' and the challenge it represents to traditional Naskapi age-grade systems and social roles which act to produce the cultural tensions which exist among this group

Best Practices in Intercultural Health: Five Case Studies in Latin America

The practice of integrating western and traditional indigenous medicine is fast becoming anaccepted and more widely used approach in health care systems throughout the world. However,debates about intercultural health approaches have raised significant concerns. This paper reportsfindings of five case studies on intercultural health in Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, andSuriname. It presents summary information on each case study, comparatively analyzes theinitiatives following four main analytical themes, and examines the case studies against a series ofthe best practice criteria

Best practices in intercultural health: five case studies in Latin America

The practice of integrating western and traditional indigenous medicine is fast becoming an accepted and more widely used approach in health care systems throughout the world. However, debates about intercultural health approaches have raised significant concerns. This paper reports findings of five case studies on intercultural health in Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Suriname. It presents summary information on each case study, comparatively analyzes the initiatives following four main analytical themes, and examines the case studies against a series of the best practice criteria

Girl, Woman, Lover, Mother: Towards a New Understanding of Child Prostitution among Young Devadasi Sex Workers in Rural Karnataka, India

The emotive issue of child prostitution is at the heart of international debates over ‘trafficking’ in women and girls, the “new slave trade”, and how these phenomena are linked with globalization, sex tourism, and expanding transnational economies. However, young sex workers, particularly those in the ‘third world’, are often represented through tropes of victimization, poverty, and “backwards” cultural traditions, constructions that rarely capture the complexity of the girls’ experiences and the role that prostitution plays in their lives. Based on ethnographic fieldwork with girls and young women who are part of the Devadasi (servant/slave of the God) system of sex work in India, this paper introduces an alternative example of child prostitution. Demonstrating the ways in which this practice is socially, economically, and culturally embedded in certain regions of rural south India underlies this new perspective. I argue that this embeddedness works to create, inform, and give meaning to these girls as they grow up in this particular context, not to isolate and produce totally different experiences of family, gender identity, and moral character as popular accounts of child prostitution contend. Data pertaining to socialization, ‘positive’ aspects of being a young sex worker in this context, political economy, HIV/AIDS, and changes in the Devadasi tradition are used to support my position. Taken together, this alternative example presents a more complex understanding of the micro- and macro-forces that impact child prostitution as well as the many factors that affect the girls’ ideas of what they do and who they are as people, not just sex workers