Health and Medical Sociology

Biography

Biography: Arifur Zaman

Abstract

Health care is essential for human survival and is concerned with the betterment of society. The socio-cultural dimensions integral to the health care of a community, effects of environment in which they live, behavioral pattern and lifestyle, traditional system prevalent among them, and the impinging factors of that system, compulsions in accepting modern health care, etc., are the main components of the health care system of a particular ethnic group. Each ethnic or tribal community has its own ideas and opinions about health and has got multifarious ways to overcome from the health related problems. The overall health status of the tribal community is the outcome of the several interacting factors. The health of the tribal people has been invariably connected with sociocultural and magical-religious practices since ancient times. They have developed indigenous way of healing practices to protect their health against various kinds of diseases. There is a popular belief prevalent among them is that some of the diseases are caused by evil spirits and malevolent deities for which they observe pristine parochial rituals to appease them. Again, the traditional method of curing diseases and ailments in general are done by application of varieties of parochial medicines prepared from wild roots, herbs, plant as well as animal parts. However, with the establishment of modern medical facilities within the rural tribal areas, they avail the benefits of the same along with integrally sticking to their pristine Medicare system. The Deori is important schedule tribes of Assam who have their own preventive and curative measures for health care. In this present endeavor a humble empirical attempt has been made to delineate the continuity and change of the traditional health care system of the Deori tribe in two homogenous Villages of upper Assam, India.