THE LIVED HISTORIES OF VULNERABLE PEOPLES: UNDERSTANDING DIFFERENTIAL SOCIAL HEALTH IN MARGINAL POPULATIONS.

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One significant social problem in many countries is the very poor social health in indigenous communities. While every native community has a substantial proportion of people who are healthy and well, there are also often a proportion of the population suffering from substance abuse, including especially from alcohol and gasoline sniffing; from suicide and domestic violence. The rates of these indicators of poor social health can be much higher in native communities than in either the general population or among ethnic minorities in the general population. This comparative research project will work with four native populations: two small groups in North and South Carolina, which although historically stressed by poverty and prejudice have very good social health, and two northern (sub-arctic) populations (both Inuit and Indian/Innu) where the social health is less good. This research project will focus on developing and refining the concept of lived history: the various ways native people see and live the connections between a not-quite-past and their sense of an impending future. This sense of a continuing history that people live, in their everyday lives, will be examined to see what role it plays in the production and maintenance of social health in native communities.