The spirit catches you and you fall down : a Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collison of two cultures
(Book)
Author
Published
New York : Farrar, Straus & Giroux, [2012].
ISBN
9780374533403, 0374533407
Physical Desc
ix, 355 pages ; 21 cm
Status
Copies
Location | Call Number | Status |
---|---|---|
Ashaway - Adult Non-Fiction | 306.4 Fad | On Shelf |
Cross Mills - Adult Non-Fiction (Lower Level) | 306.461 Fad | On Shelf |
Cumberland - Non-Fiction (2nd Floor) | 1220 HEALTH-EPILEPSY-FAD PB | On Shelf |
Foster - Adult Non-Fiction | 306.4 FAD | On Shelf |
North Scituate - Young Adult | YA 306.461 FAD | On Shelf |
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More Details
Published
New York : Farrar, Straus & Giroux, [2012].
Format
Book
Language
English
ISBN
9780374533403, 0374533407
Notes
General Note
Reprint. Originally published: New York : Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1997.
General Note
Includes new afterword by the author.
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Description
When three-month-old Lia Lee arrived at the county hospital emergency room in Merced, California, a chain of events was set in motion from which neither she nor her parents nor her doctors would ever recover. Lia's parents, Foua and Nao Kao, were part of a large Hmong community in Merced, refugees from the CIA-run "Quiet War" in Laos. The Hmong, traditionally a close-knit and fiercely proud people, have been less amenable to assimilation than most immigrants, adhering steadfastly to the rituals and beliefs of their ancestors. Lia's pediatricians, Neil Ernst and his wife, Peggy Philip, cleaved just as strongly to another tradition: that of Western medicine. When Lia Lee entered the American medical system, diagnosed as an epileptic, her story became a tragic case history of cultural miscommunication. Parents and doctors both wanted the best for Lia, but their ideas about the causes of her illness and its treatment could hardly have been more different. The Hmong see illness and healing as spiritual matters linked to virtually everything in the universe, while medical community marks a division between body and soul, and concerns itself almost exclusively with the former. Lia's doctors ascribed her seizures to the misfiring of her cerebral neurons; her parents called her illness, qaug dab peg--the spirit catches you and you fall down--and ascribed it to the wandering of her soul. The doctors prescribed anticonvulsants; her parents preferred animal sacrifices.
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Citations
APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)
Fadiman, A. (2012). The spirit catches you and you fall down: a Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collison of two cultures . Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Fadiman, Anne, 1953-. 2012. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collison of Two Cultures. Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Fadiman, Anne, 1953-. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collison of Two Cultures Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2012.
MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)Fadiman, Anne. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collison of Two Cultures Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2012.
Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.
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