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

研究人员表明，一个人对身体自我的看法和经历会受到语言、文化和种族的影响。这项由该奖项资助的研究提出的问题是，当来自不同文化和种族背景的人必须与他们的生物相关时会发生什么？这些分歧是如何谈判的，结果是什么？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践意义，例如，当医疗服务提供者来自一种文化群体，而接受者来自另一种文化群体时。亚利桑那州立大学人类学博士生Dimitra Mari Varvarezou女士将在伊丽莎白·A·勃兰特博士和乔纳森·莫平博士的指导下，从残疾的角度研究这一问题。她将专注于土著认识论如何影响迪内(纳瓦霍)成年人的肢体残疾经历，以及照顾他们的迪内人的理解；考察盎格鲁服务提供商和医疗保健专业人员对肢体残疾的认识论和理解；并确定当这两个群体走到一起时会发生什么以及为什么。这项研究将在凤凰城大都市区和保护区外地点进行。Varvarezou将采用混合方法设计，包括参与者观察；自由名单和文化共识分析，以确定身体残疾、症状、原因和治疗的文化模式；以及集中的半结构化访谈。研究人员还将评估迪内人、盎格鲁医护人员以及两个文化群体之间关于残疾认知的一致模式和差异程度。这项研究的发现将促进人们更好地理解社会认知在跨文化医疗保健中所起的作用。研究结果还将有助于将跨文化情境中的文化谈判理论化。

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.