Doctoral Dissertation Research: An ethnographic study of cross-cultural perceptions and experiences of disability

研究人员已经表明，一个人对自己身体的感知和体验会受到语言、文化和种族的影响。该奖项资助的研究所提出的问题是，当来自不同文化和种族背景的人必须与他们的生物学互动时，会发生什么？这些分歧是如何谈判的，结果如何？虽然这可以被视为一个有趣的理论问题，但它也具有重要的实际意义，例如当医疗服务的提供者来自一个文化群体而接受者来自另一个文化群体时。亚利桑那州州立大学人类学博士生迪米特里·马里·瓦尔瓦雷祖女士在伊丽莎白·A.勃兰特和乔纳森·莫平博士将通过残疾的透镜来调查这个问题。她将侧重于如何土著认识论影响迪内（纳瓦霍）成年人的身体残疾的经验，以及迪内人谁照顾他们的理解;检查由盎格鲁服务提供者和医疗保健专业人员举行的身体残疾的认识论和理解;并确定发生了什么，为什么，当两个群体走到一起。这项研究将在凤凰城大都会区和非保留地的位置进行。Varvarezou将采用混合方法设计，包括参与者观察;自由列表和文化共识分析，以确定身体残疾，症状，原因和治疗的文化模型;以及集中的半结构化访谈。研究人员还将评估的协议模式和变化程度的残疾人之间的Diné的看法，盎格鲁医护人员之间，以及两个文化群体之间。 这项研究的结果将促进更好地理解社会认知在跨文化医疗保健中的作用。研究结果也将有助于理论化的文化谈判在跨文化的情况。

Researchers have shown that one's pereceptions and experiences of one's physical self are affected by language, culture, and ethnicity. The question the research funded by this award is asking is, what happens when people from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds must interact in relation to their biologies? How do those differences get negotiated and with what result? While this can be seen as an interesting theroetical question, it also has important practical implications, such as when a provider of healthcare services comes from one cultural group and the recipient comes from another. Arizona State University anthropology doctoral student, Ms. Dimitra Mari Varvarezou, with the guidance of Dr. Elizabeth A. Brandt and Dr. Jonathan Maupin, will investigate the problem through the lens of of disability. She will focus on how indigenous epistemologies affect Diné (Navajo) adults' experience of physical disabilities, as well as the understandings of Diné individuals who care for them; examine the epistemologies and understandings of physical disabilities held by Anglo service providers and healthcare professionals; and determine what happens, and why, when the two groups come together.This research will be conducted in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area and in off-Reservation locations. Varvarezou will employ a mixed methods design, including participant observation; free lists and cultural consensus analysis to determine cultural models of physical disability, symptoms, causes, and treatment; and focused semi-structured interviews. The researcher will also assess the patterns of agreement and degree of variation in relation to disability perceptions among the Diné, among Anglo healthcare workers, and between the two cultural groups. Findings from this research will promote a better understanding of the role that social perceptions play in cross-cultural healthcare. Findings will also contribute to theorization of cultural negotiations in cross-cultural situations.