“What’s in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet” William Shakespeare, “Romeo and Juliet”, act 2, scene 2 “(…) But the label ‘schizophrenia’ is often toxic for those who acquire…
Different Shades of White: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Albinotic Body – Conference Report
Several phenomena have contributed to the increased attention paid to albinism in the past decade. The terrible atrocities inflicted on persons with albinism in East Africa made international headlines. In response, local and global actors – from the Tanzania Albinism…
Cancer, Care and Hope – A Hospital Ethnography on Palliative Care in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
The emergence of hospices and palliative care in Africa during the late 20th and early 21st centuries has been tied to the fact that patients were dying from HIV/AIDS in large numbers due to the non-availability of ART at the…
From Traditional Birth Attendants to Community Health Workers: The Politics of Maternal Health in Tanzania
Efforts to address maternal health have been part of global health projects for decades, and have always mirrored the shifting political and economic interests of international development. The ongoing construction of maternal health at the global level reflects the way…
Singing Albinism in Global Tanzania: “Demanding” Inclusion through Music
Medical transnational goods, ideas and conceptions, spread by humanitarian institutions and NGOs, intersect with the production of new local understandings and knowledge of illness and healing and are critically appropriated by local communities (Hahn 2004). Specific outcomes of these cultural…
Ethik und Ethnologie: Ethikkommissionen, ethnographisches Arbeiten und Epistemologie – nicht nur in der Medizinethnologie
EthnologInnen in Deutschland haben es gut: Sie müssen keine Ethikgenehmigung für ihre Feldforschungen einwerben oder befürchten, dass ihre Forschung als „unethisch“ gilt, wenn sie nicht das Begutachtungsverfahren einer Ethikkommission durchlaufen hat. Damit unterscheidet sich die Ethnologie von den Medizin- und…