'Being Alive Well': Health and the Politics of Cree Well-Being / Edition 1

by Naomi Adelson

Overview

'Being Alive Well': Health and the Politics of Cree Well-Being is a critical medical anthropological analysis of health theory in the social sciences with specific reference to the James Bay Cree of northern Quebec. In it the author argues that definitions of health are not simply reflections of physiological soundness but convey broader cultural and political realities. The book begins with a treatise on the study of health in the social sciences and a call for a broader understanding of the cultural parameters of any definition of health.

Following a chapter that outlines the history of the Whapmagoostui (Great Whale River) region and the people, Adelson presents the underlying symbolic foundations of a Cree concept of health, or miyupimaatisiiun. The core of this book is an ethnographic study of the Whapmagoostui Cree and their particular concept of "health" (miyupimaatisiiun or "being alive well"). That concept is mediated by history, cultural practices, and the contemporary world of the Cree, including their fundamental concerns about their land and culture. In the contemporary context, health – or more specifically, "being alive well" – for the Cree of Great Whale is an intimate fusion of social, political, and personal well-being, thus linking individual bodies to a larger socio-political reality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802083265
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	09/01/2000
Series:	Anthropological Horizons
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Naomi Adelson is Associate Professor of Anthropology at York University. She has been working with the Whapmagoostui Cree of northern Quebec since 1988.

What People are Saying About This

Peter Stephenson

'...a solid contribution to the fields of medical anthropology and sub-arctic ethnology.'

Editorial Reviews

'...a solid contribution to the fields of medical anthropology and sub-arctic ethnology.'

—Peter Stephenson, Department of Anthropology, University of Victoria

From the Publisher

Taking an anthropological perspective, Adelson defines health as a complex, dynamic process rather than a baseline standard of biomedical or epidemiological normalcy. For the Cree of Whapmagoostui, she argues, a sense of health cannot be understood outside the context of colonial and neo-colonial relations in Canada, and the associated displacement, discriminatory legislation, failed attempts at assimilation, forced religious conversion, and pervasive racism. Canadian card order number: C00-930395-2. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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