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“Traditional Medicine Across European and Asian Cultures” is a project that includes an ethno-anthropological study on popular medicine in Euro-Asian partner’s countries. It is a three years study on how people of different Euro-Asian cultures and social groups interpret the causes of illness/health, the type of treatment they believe in, and to which they turn in case they become ill. The study includes the participation of healers and PHC Doctors and its activities heave been grouped into six main phases herewith detailed. Research methods used are quali-quantitative and use ethnographic, including rapid ethnographic assessment, and comparative approaches. The latter will be used to compare the key features of each society and culture studied in its context, with those of other societies and cultures, in order to draw conclusions about the universal nature of human beings and their social groupings. Particularly, a “triangulation” analysis will be carried out comparing, where possible, information provided by the population, by the “healers” and by the PHC Doctors.
Phase one: Preparatory step to project implementation
During this phase, there will be meetings of partners, to better acquaint themselves with each other, with presentations of their countries’ situations and detailed discussions on the project and on its implementation. Then the project will be finalized in terms of design and it will be harmonized among all partners. This includes the definition of methods, approaches and instruments, the definition of target populations and the finalization of a selection of activities, including the evaluation procedures. Great care will be devoted to the quality of methods and tools to be used during the project, so that they will be culture-sensitive, respectful of similarities and differences, and appropriate to the various countries’ realities.
Phase two: documentary investigation
The documentary investigation will start with the analysis of the existing situation in the European and Asian partner countries. The analysis of the territorial context will be carried out by means of data collection, through questionnaires and forms, statistical and bibliographic records and by means of interviewing selected testimonials.
Written, published, or otherwise available, information and material referred to popular medicine will be retrieved and processed. There will be also a revision of the literature and the results will be systematized in paper format and will also be available on the web. Each partner will be responsible for the implementation of this phase in her/his own country.
Phase three: field studies
Through an ethno-anthropological field study in each partner’s country, a map/inventory of the most common illnesses/symptoms will be derived along with the popular remedies still in use in those countries. This phase foresees research with the three main stakeholders: the population, the “healers”, and the PHC Doctors. Each partner will be responsible for carrying out the field studies in her/his own Country.
The population study
A sample of the general population in each partner’s country will participate to the study, including the young and the old, women and men. Various types of investigations will be carried out in order to collect the most effective information on the population perception of causes of “illnesses”, the treatment used, its cost, its perceived effectiveness and any possible side effects. Various approaches, methods and tools will be used. “Participatory techniques”, focus groups, “participant observation techniques”, collection of personal stories, and other experiential data collection methods will be used. Among the instruments utilized there are open-ended and semi-structured questionnaire, observation reports and diaries, video and tape recordings, compilation of personal or family stories. For certain “illnesses” of particular importance, rapid ethnographic assessment exercises will also be used. Included in the investigation is also the use of home remedies, those inherited in the family and used without external help.
The healer’s study
Healers are found in different forms in every human society and may employ rituals for healing purposes. Their healing care can consist of certain religious symbols or artefacts (plants, talismans, divination stones, holy texts, or statuettes), which also symbolize powerful healing forces (gods, spirits, ancestors). Healers may act as “integrators” of society, regularly reasserting their society’s values, or as agents of social control, helping to identify and punish socially deviant behaviours. When studying how individuals perceive, and react to, illness/health and investigating the type of care they turn to, it is important to know the cultural and social attributes of the environment they live in. An important role is played by the “healer” or by the “healers”, their identification and role, their modus operandi, the type of remedies used, the recognition, if any, of the used remedies, their effectiveness and their possible negative side effects. The study will gather information on the type of” healers’ “training and on their initiation. The information will be gathered through the use of individual healers’ narratives, interviews, open-ended and semi structured questionnaires, observation recordings, photographs, video registrations. Data collected will include information on costs of “treatments” and on payment modalities.
The PHC Doctors study
This part of the field survey is principally addressed to PHC Doctors in the areas where the study will be conducted. They usually work very close to the population and may know information about their cultural traditions, even if they do not come from the area. This includes information on local use of traditional remedies and, most important, they may be the ones who most likely witness episodes of negative side effects subsequent to the use of traditional remedies, and therefore this information will be solicited from them. Also, it is relevant to collect information on Doctors’ perceptions and appreciation of traditional remedies to “treat” the most common illness/health episodes.
Semi-structured, open-ended questionnaires and interviews should provide information on PHC Doctors perceptions of local traditional medicine, including their knowledge of the popular causes of common illness/health and the remedies used, including home remedies. One part of the study will collect data on the Doctors’ perceptions of the effectiveness and on their “documented” experience of negative effects. Information on the cost per episode of illness/health will be collected, if the episode was treated pharmacologically.
Phase four: Traditional Medicine across Euro-Asian Cultures on the web
The Thematic Network will be developed to house also the Health link where all the information on Popular Medicine derived from the project in participating European and Asian countries will be stored. Particularly, the location will provide multilingual information on the perception of causes of illness/health in the studied populations, on the currently use of “therapies”, including home remedies, on their perceived or “tested” effectiveness, on their additional risk, and on their costs, compared to modern medicine. There will also be a description and a mapping of the diverse historical, cultural and anthropological contexts in which the studies will have taken place. The documentary and field studies will offer the great opportunity to collect innovative information about the Popular Medicine and thanks to the standardized results of the research it will possible to produce training material and make it available on the web.
The database will contain descriptive, informative, guiding and educational information, which will be easily accessible to everyone connecting to Internet and to the portal.
Special attention will be paid to the language used in order to make it comprehensible not only to specialists. Data and information will be inputted on an ongoing base and as early as the first months. Therefore, it is expected that the information contained on the web page will be regularly updated and as informative as possible. A space will be opened for an interactive exchange between the partners and anyone with an interest on these issues.
The input of information into the database will follow these steps:
· Elaboration of data and information and their organization into summary cards;
· Processing of these cards into HTML language (Web-site production);
· Designing of the architecture of logical frames between the already developed and the in-progress Web pages. Once produced, the Web site will have interactive functions and will have its own Internet and e-mail domain.
Phase five: Monitoring and Evaluation activities
Monitoring and evaluation will affect the main project’s areas - the field study implementation and the web-site construction and maintenance.
Evaluating the web
The “Thematic Network” on health will provide access to ethnographic information on popular medicine. The information will be systematized, constantly updated and rigorously filtered to guarantee the highest methodological quality.
The Web-Site portal on Traditional Medicine will be composed of these main areas:
- guidelines and procedural area;
- knowledge managing area: databases and documentation in integral format;
- know-how area: research methodologies, most common illnesses under investigation, “therapies” used, most “effective” remedies, known side effects of remedies, including information on toxicity, bibliographic research modes, implementation and evaluation methodologies of guidelines and educational activities;
- FAD area: training material and educational information;
- Worldwide communication and exchange space.
A Web site pilot experimentation has been scheduled, as well as its progressive remodelling in relation to users needs. The pilot experimentation will be carried out through predefined modalities:
- easy and fast access
- identification of inadequacies/redundancies
- Web usefulness, in terms of providing clear and appropriate information
- Electronic document delivery service efficiency (on request).
The Web site final version and the setting-up of the updating programme will be carried out through advice received during the experimental phase. However, contents will be gradually remodelled until their final version. Even then, the Web-Site will be constantly monitored and evaluated in relation to the content, its accessibility, the upgrading timing, its degree of acceptability and its capacity to foster interest by partners and by the population, including experts, utilizing it.
Evaluating the field work component
The process of carrying out the field studies will undergo regular supervision, monitoring and evaluation, according to the following description. Monitoring of the progress in the implementation of the field studies in the various Countries contexts will be an on going activity. It will be done through reports in order to identify eventual bottlenecks or difficulties, that can be solved by modifying procedures. Implementation will also be monitored from the organizational standpoint, not only from the scientific point of view. Supervision will be regularly scheduled and will comprise field visits by “supervisors”: European and Asian anthropologists of known experience in this type of studies, who will supervise the project using a peer review approach. Supervision will have formative purpose.
Two types of formal evaluations are foreseen by the project: a midterm and a final one. The midterm will assess the validity of defined objectives and the appropriateness of selected activities given the existing resources and constraints. Findings and results of this evaluation will be discussed at a meeting among the partners and will be used to improve the project implementation. The final evaluation, towards the end of the project will assess the reaching of the objectives and the final results. The findings and results of the final evaluations will be presented at an international meeting for experts and for all those interested in this subject matter. Information on these activities will also be available on the web site.
Phase six: Multiplier effect through dissemination and training
This phase is ongoing, as dissemination is an important component of the project, to make the research results available to all people interested in them.
Partners’ human resources engaged on the project will improve their knowledge and information through experiential exchanges, through the active and participatory project development but also through an international collaboration and an exchange of best practises. The project aims at extending the methodological and practical results to other people, thanks to the creation of the thematic portal available on the web, but also thanks to the carrying out of international meetings and the realisation of specific publications.
Particularly, training material and educational information will be organized in a FAD area within the virtual thematic platform, so they will be easily accessible to everyone connecting to Internet and to the portal.
Furthermore, the promoter, in close collaboration with the partners, will organise international workshops and seminars on Euro-Asian Traditional Medicine to be offered at least annually to professionals and others interested in these issues.
Field visits to the project sites will also be programmed. |
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The Project