...about the Hmong culture, they originally dominated the country of China; however, they were overtaken by other Asian groups (Split Horn). Some Hmong people were enslaved, while majority of the Hmong individuals scattered throughout the world. Hmong families and relatives strayed away from populated areas, and decided to escape to Thailand. With the separation of the Hmong population, Hmong relatives mainly mobilized to Laos or deep into the mountains in Thailand. The estimated Hmong population during that time was 300,000 to 400,000 people (Split Horn). When the Vietnam War began, several Hmong people decided to find different locations to live in, while other Hmong individuals contributed to fight along with the United...
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...Promoting Cultural Sensitivity A Practical Guide for Tuberculosis Programs That Provide Services to Hmong Persons from Laos U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Hla dej yuav hle khau; Tsiv teb tsaws chaw yuav hle hau. “When you cross a river, take off your sandals; when you emigrate from one country to another, take off your hat.” –Hmong Proverb Promoting Cultural Sensitivity A Practical Guide for Tuberculosis Programs That Provide Services to Hmong Persons from Laos Female elder. © Frank Carter. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2008 For Additional Information For more information or for a list of available guides, please contact: Division of Tuberculosis Elimination National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention Coordinating Center for Infectious Diseases Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 1600 Clifton Road, NE, Mailstop E-10 Atlanta, GA 30333 Phone: (404) 639-8120 Web site: http://www.cdc.gov/tb Suggested Citation Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2008). Promoting Cultural Sensitivity: A Practical Guide for Tuberculosis Programs That Provide Services to Hmong Persons from Laos. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 2 Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Intended Audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....
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...illustrates how the collision of two cultures indirectly led to the demise of a little seven- year old girl. I did not expect the story to end with Lia Lee in a persistent vegetative state. I was very excited when I first started the book, but I soon became rather depressed with the lack of compassion of people towards the Hmong in general throughout the book. I am not certain whether I am now more culturally aware now, but I was very frustrated by the lack of respect given to the Hmong by the people in the city of Merced and the doctors and nurses comments about the Lees. Three Major Themes Evident in the Book: A: Cultural Understanding An important thread running throughout this book is cultural understanding. Americans, including the medical professionals in Merced and Valley Children’s Hospital are depicted as very insensitive to the ways of the Hmong people. Anne Fadiman, while acutely aware of the physicians’ frustrations in providing medical care for those individuals with very radically different worldviews was able to at least urge the physicians to acknowledge the families realities. The Hmong have been fighting against many different peoples over centuries, being forced from their beloved China into Laos, then into Thailand, and then the United States. The Hmong people throughout history have had little need to assimilate to other cultures because they have lived...
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...Hmong culture is a combination of Chinese, Vietnamese, Laos, and Thai, making them very unique in the basics of culture, where they live, and their global landscape. Hmong people are very unique in a few ways and are not well-known as an Asian culture if you were to ask someone. Although they are not a country, Hmong people have lots of pride in their culture and ancestors. From the fancy traditional clothes to living in the mountains between countries and being separated from China and Vietnam, Hmong people are very independent and are influenced by many countries. Hmong is a very independent Asian culture and community and has very unique and colorful traditional clothes. Traditional women clothes contain long black pants or skirts, hand...
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...Culture exist in every society, it is based on attitudes, values, and beliefs. Culture can either be visible or invisible; usually the invisible value-belief system of a particular culture is often the major driving force behind the visible. Culture can be defines as the context for interpreting human experiences such as health and illness and provides direction to decision and actions. All culture has systems of health beliefs to explain what causes illness, how it can be cured or treated and who should be involved in the care process. Cultural awareness can be defines as : “an in-depth self-examination of one’s own background, recognizing bias, prejudices, and assumption about other people”. To provide an effective care, health care provider should be of cultural competence and practice. Cultural sensitive care in nursing is important to provide meaningful and supportive care for clients. Beyond the concept that language can often present a barrier to proper understanding and decision making, every client has a unique background and life story that influences what he or she considers appropriate care. Age, race ethnicity, gender, race, religion, economic status, and other factors such as prior healthcare encounter and recent family event can all affect how an individual sees the world. To discover client’s culture care, values, meaning, beliefs and practices, nurses need to be able to assess social, cultural, and biophysical factors influencing treatment and care of client;...
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...Praise for The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down “Fadiman describes with extraordinary skill the colliding worlds of Western medicine and Hmong culture.” —The New Yorker “This fine book recounts a poignant tragedy…It has no heroes or villains, but it has an abundance of innocent suffering, and it most certainly does have a moral…[A] sad, excellent book.” —Melvin Konner, The New York Times Book Review “An intriguing, spirit-lifting, extraordinary exploration of two cultures in uneasy coexistence…A wonderful aspect of Fadiman’s book is her even-handed, detailed presentation of these disparate cultures and divergent views—not with cool, dispassionate fairness but rather with a warm, involved interest that sees and embraces both sides of each issue…Superb, informal cultural anthropology—eye-opening, readable, utterly engaging.” —Carole Horn, The Washington Post Book World “This is a book that should be deeply disturbing to anyone who has given so much as a moment’s thought to the state of American medicine. But it is much more…People are presented as [Fadiman] saw them, in their humility and their frailty—and their nobility.” —Sherwin B. Nuland, The New Republic 3/462 “Anne Fadiman’s phenomenal first book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, brings to life the enduring power of parental love in an impoverished refugee family struggling to protect their seriously ill infant daughter and ancient spiritual traditions from the tyranny of welfare bureaucrats and intolerant...
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...course website. 1. What do you think of traditional Hmong birth practices (pp. 3-5)? Compare them to the techniques used when Lia was born (p. 7). How do Hmong and American birth practices differ? 2. Over many centuries the Hmong fought against a number of different peoples who claimed sovereignty over their lands; they were also forced to emigrate from China. How do you think these up-heavals have affected their culture? What role has history played in the formation of Hmong culture? 3. Dr. Dan Murphy said, "The language barrier was the most obvious problem, but not the most important. The biggest problem was the cultural barrier. There is a tremendous difference between dealing with the Hmong and dealing with anyone else. An infinite difference" (p. 91). What does he mean by this? 4. The author says, "I was struck...by the staggering toll of stress that the Hmong exacted from the people who took care of them, particularly the ones who were young, idealistic, and meticulous" (p. 75). Why do you think the doctors felt such great stress? 5. Dr. Neil Ernst said, "I felt it was important for these Hmongs to understand that there were certain elements of medicine that we understood better than they did and that there were certain rules they had to follow with their kids' lives. I wanted the word to get out in the community that if they deviated from that, it was not acceptable behavior" (p. 79). Do you think the Hmong understood this message? Why or why not? What do you think...
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...Growing up my Aunt always told my siblings and I that we, the Hmong people, used to have blonde hair and blue eyes. She would tell us that our grandmother used to have blonde hair but as she grew older, her hair turned dark and grey. When I heard this, I thought she was joking or just fooling around, so I asked my grandmother if this was true and she replied, “yes”. She also showed me her eyes. They were not brown like the rest of my family, instead, they were a hazel green. I was beyond amazed and asked her where we came from. My grandmother explained to me how we used to live in China but the Chinese people drove us out due to our people’s ignorance. According to the Hmong Lessons and Traditions, Hmong originated from the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers in China and were a civilized...
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...Lucy Vue Public Speaking NE 11A.M Janet Nobles Informative Speech Outline Objective: To inform To inform the audience about a history background of the Hmong people. Intro: I have a lot of people asking me this question every time they finished asking me what nationality I am. What is Hmong? That triggers me! Sometimes it is heard for me to answer them because I don’t know the real answer to it and I would just say “we are Asian, we don’t have a country and we are not Mongolian.” This question, what is Hmong finally led me to research on my own people history, therefore I finally found out interesting information. I. What is Hmong? a) Hmong are an ethnic group from the mountain regions of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. b) The Hmong claim an origin in the Yellow River region of China. In Martha Ratliff’s 2004 book, Vocabulary of Environment and Subsistence in Proto-language, there is linguistic evidence to suggest that they have occupied the same areas of southern China for at least the past 2,000 years. c) 'Miao' people, a group with whom Hmong people are often identified. II. Hmong Rituals and Culture a) An article in www. Pbs.org stated about the Hmong religion is traditionally animist. According to Hmong cosmology, the human body is the host for a number of souls. The isolation and separation of one or more of these souls from the body can cause disease, depression and death. Curing rites are therefore referred to as "soul-calling rituals"...
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...dynamics of a family vary vastly between different cultures. The Hmong people in particular are a group of people whose history and traditional values strongly influences the family dynamic. It’s a culture whose principles strongly revolve around hierarchy and patriarchy. Many times the system of patriarchy overpowers within Hmong cultures and women get left behind and often times become victims of abuse. This is an important issue that not many people in the community have addressed because of importance on cultural beliefs, norms, and family honor. I will first start off with a brief history of the Hmong. Hmong people are an ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China. But because of political unrest and ethnic cleansing...
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...if medical schools were to expand their course curriculum, incorporating cultural classes. In order for a doctor to be successful, he must be able to understand his patients. Without this understanding, the doctor cannot adequately assess the medical problem. Not being able to assess the problem leads to a wrong diagnosis. Understanding their patients involves knowing their cultural beliefs. Doctors will not know about every single culture, but they can still research them. Not knowing enough information about other cultural groups can be detrimental from the start. The Hmong society is a group of people that the doctors do not particularly understand. This is constantly seen throughout Anne Fadiman’s book “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down”. The Hmong people are terrified to go to the hospital and only go when they feel that they have no other choice. Stone 2 The Hmong are not use to the differences between how a doctor and Shaman go about their work. For instance they are not use to the aggressive questioning that takes place when they go...
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...Many Hmong refugees resettled in the United States after the Vietnam War. Beginning in December 1975, the first Hmong refugees arrived in the U.S., mainly from refugee camps in Thailand; however, only 3,466 were granted asylum at that time under the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1975. In May 1976, another 11,000 were allowed to enter the United States, and by 1978 some 30,000 Hmong people had immigrated. The Hmong community is very religious for the most part. In some of the large cities where Lao and Hmong-Americans live and work, tensions have, on rare occasion, running high between them and neighboring ethnic groups. Hmong people have sometimes been targets of discrimination, mainly because of job competition and stereotyping of them as foreigners and too dependent on welfare. Some of their persecutors justified their actions by claiming that the Hmong unnecessarily took jobs, welfare money, and other services away from long-time residents. As with any social issues, these communities evolve to being very successful but also they suffer issues such as crime that is perpetrated by their own. Hmong gangs are considered to be some of the most violent Asian gangs on the US. These gangs are formed mainly by younger generations of Hmong; they become enchanted with the American way of life and get involved with crime. Throughout the United States, the number of Hmong gangs and the level of their criminal activity are increasing in severity. Their participation...
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...the Hmong were losing to the uprising of the Vietnamese army and the tactics of guerilla warfare was used against the US soldiers in Vietnam. There were enemies everywhere and they were all hard to take out because a majority of the enemy did not have uniforms and dressed up just like civilians. As the US fought the war it was also fighting against another war at home with its people, who were protesting against the war. As time progressed and the US knew there was no hope of winning the war the US then tried to find a way out withdrawing all its troops and getting out of the war. When a ceasefire agreement between both sides was made on February 1972, the US then quickly evacuated their troops and left the Hmong allies to fight the North Vietnamese alone. (Quincy 1995) After US left, the Hmong genocide soon came afterwards for aiding the...
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...09/09/2013 Assignment 1 1. What do you think of traditional Hmong birth practices (pp. 3-5)? Compare them to the techniques used when Lia was born (p. 7). How do Hmong and American birth practices differ? I find the traditional birth practices peculiar and very unsafe. The conceiving of a child should be done in a sterile environment by professionals, so that the risks of negative effects like infections, wounds, etc. is minimized. Nevertheless I think the tradition, that the placenta is buried by the father, so that the soul can return to it’s first jacket, in order to continue it’s after death journey, is a wonderful way of believing what comes after death. Professional doctors handled Lia’s birth the American way, with her mother lying on a metal table with sterile drapes and no anaesthetics. This is a big difference to the Hmon customs, where Foua would have squatted on the dirty floor and pulled the baby out by herself, while trying not to touch the floor and not waking her other kids, until the new-born starts to cry. Another difference is that the Hmong bury the baby’s placenta and the Americans incinerate it. After birth a soul calling ceremony officially in order to confirm the quality of Lia’s name and pleasing the soul to reside in Lia’s body to protect her from illness and evil spirits. 2. Over many centuries the Hmong fought against a number of different peoples who claimed sovereignty over their lands; they were also forced to emigrate from China. How...
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...Cultural Barriers Among the Hmong After 1975 large numbers of Hmong were granted refugee status. Refugees had a different experience than immigrants. American Society expected immigrants to assimilate but refugees weren’t really expected to Americanize. Earlier Immigration policy required immigrant’s cultures and customs to melt away, but after the 1940’s immigrant’s considered white, such as the Irish and Italian, were accepted to have the hyphen of Irish-American or Italian-American. Their ethnicities and cultures were accepted but other immigrant groups that weren’t considered white enough such as the Chinese and Mexicans were considered too different and too strange so their customs weren’t accepted. When these large numbers of Hmong arrived to the U.S. they were also not considered white, so their cultures and traditions weren’t accepted and because of this made it...
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