Aboriginal Health in CanadaAboriginal Health in Canada
Numerous studies, inquiries, and statistics accumulated over the years have demonstrated the poor health status of Aboriginal peoples relative to the Canadian population in general. Aboriginal Health in Canada is about the complex web of physiological, psychological, spiritual, historical, sociological, cultural, economic, and environmental factors that contribute to health and disease patterns among the Aboriginal peoples of Canada.
The authors explore the evidence for changes in patterns of health and disease prior to and since European contact, up to the present. They discuss medical systems and the place of medicine within various Aboriginal cultures and trace the relationship between politics and the organization of health services for Aboriginal people. They also examine popular explanations for Aboriginal health patterns today, and emphasize the need to understand both the historical-cultural context of health issues, as well as the circumstances that give rise to variation in health problems and healing strategies in Aboriginal communities across the country. An overview of Aboriginal peoples in Canada provides a very general background for the non-specialist. Finally, contemporary Aboriginal healing traditions, the issue of self-determination and health care, and current trends in Aboriginal health issues are examined.
Waldram (psychology, U. of Saskatchewan), D. Ann Herring (anthropology, McMaster U.), and T. Kue Young (public health sciences, U. of Toronto) update their 1995 study to take advantage of the notable expansion in research and publication on Canadian Aboriginal health issues and a proliferation of health-oriented Web sites that have made the research and its policy implications much more widely available. Their account is a generalist historical and contemporary review that is national in scope and combines the methodologies and perspectives of epidemiology, history, and anthropology. They reference more specialized works that in turn reference original research. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
An overview of Aboriginal peoples in Canada provides a very general background for the non-specialist. Finally, contemporary Aboriginal healing traditions, the issue of self-determination and health care, and current trends in Aboriginal health issues are examined.
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- Toronto, Ont. : University of Toronto Press, c2006.
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