U.S.-Mexico Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: Cognition and Medical Practice: Cognitive Metaphor in Highland Maya Ethnophysiological Discourse

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0121171BerlinThis Americas Program thesis enhancement project will support thesis dissertation research by Mr. Cameron Adams under the supervision of Dr. Eloise A. Berlin of the University of Georgia. The study, in collaboration with El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR) in Chiapas, Mexico, aims to use cognitive methods to establish whether the Highland Maya have a shared ethnophysiology. A model of such a physiology will be developed and transcripts of open-ended interviews will be analyzed for structured metaphor usage.Because perceptions of body function inform much of culturally defined medical behavior, including practices such as behavioral and medicinal prescriptions and /or proscriptions, researchers have argued that a thorough understanding of concepts of physiology lead to a greater understanding of any medical system. Through its modeling of Highland Maya ethnophysiology, the proposed research will serve to address various issues in medical and cognitive anthropology and advance efforts at developing culturally appropriate health care delivery systems for indigenous populations in Mexico and elsewhere.