CULTURE AND HEALTH

BEHAVIOUR

By
Saleet Abdullah
Lecturer KMU-IHS, Swabi
 Objectives
At the end of this unit the learner will be able to:
• Explain the effects of culture on illness, cultural shock, and maladjustment.
• Describe Sickness and sick role, Birth and Death.
• Discuss the cultural variations in symptoms behaved by the sick.
• Relate the concept of Compliance in different cultures
• Describe the Food taboos in different cultures
• Define Behavior in-groups: status, deviance, alienation, and socialization.
 Effects of Culture on Health

• No physical or psychological illness can be effectively treated without

an appreciation for the cultural background of those afflicted.
• Culturally mediated beliefs regarding Western versus traditional
medicines, for example, may affect patient choice of treatment. Such
beliefs along with culturally mediated dietary habits may directly
affect aspect of care including drug choice or selection of health care
practitioner.
 Impact of Cultural Factor on
Health
• Concept of Etiology and Cure
• Food Habbits
• Mother and Child Health
• Personal Hygiene
• Marriage and Sexuality
 Cultural Shock

• A physical or emotional discomfort or anxiety that one suffers when coming

to live in another country or a place that is different from the place of origin.

• Frustrations may include lack of food, unacceptable standards of cleanliness

different bathroom facilities fear for personal safety.

• Culture shock includes, hearing yes for no, having to bargain, having
laughter used for anger etc.
 Stages of Culture Shock

• Culture shock generally moves through four different

phases: honeymoon, frustration, adjustment, and
acceptance.

1. The honeymoon stage:

• The first stage of culture shock is often overwhelmingly
positive. Travelers become infatuated with the language,
people, and food in their new surroundings. At this stage,
the trip or move seems like the greatest decision ever made
and an exciting adventure.
 Stages of Culture Shock

2. The Frustration Phase:

• In the frustration stage, life in a new country can feel difficult and
confusing. Things like communicating in another language, navigating
cultural differences, or getting lost can cause irritation and fatigue.
• It’s normal to feel homesick or to miss familiar ways of doing things.
Some people may feel depressed, anxious, or angry. These feelings
come and go as cultural adaptation continues.
 Stages of Culture Shock

3. The Adjustment stage:

The third stage of culture shock, the adjustment period, usually comes
after someone has adapted to their new life in another country. As they
become familiar with new experiences, like the local language and
transportation, confidence grows and frustration lessens. People in the
adjustment period have often built a community of support and
friendships in their new country.
 Stages of culture shock

4. The acceptance stage:

• People who have moved through the other three stages of culture
shock will eventually come to the acceptance phase. Acceptance
happens on different timelines for everyone, but generally, people in
this stage are well adjusted and thriving in their new environment.
They are able to access the resources they need and feel stable in their
day-to-day life.
Stages of Cultural Shock
 Maladjusment

• The maladjusted could be defined as someone unable to cope with the challenges of
everyday living.
• Stressors could include; change of work/school/neighbourhood, divorce/separation, and
loss of a loved one, etc.
• The Symptoms of maladjustment in an individual may be like, loneliness, sadness, loss
of identity, lack of confidence, longing for family, developing stereotypes about the
new culture, Anger, irritability, unwillingness to interact with others, pain, and allergies,
feeling depressed, vulnerable, and powerless, Insomnia, feeling lost etc.
 Birth and Death

• Pregnancy and childbirth may be a universal experience, but each

culture celebrates baby’s arrival in its own way.
Birth:
• There are between 4 and 5 babies born every single second around the
world. That’s over 250 every minute! And each one of these babies is
welcomed into the world in their family’s own unique way, often with
special traditions or customs that their cultures have observed for
centuries, often to protect the mother and baby in the fragile time after
birth.
 Birth and Death
Birth Traditions in Pakistan:
First Bath:
Once a baby is born, they need to be bathed as soon as possible. Cleanliness is important in Islam. The afterbirth
and placenta are also buried immediately. According to the Quran, this has to do with returning it to the earth.
First Words Heard (Azaan)
After the baby is bathed for the first time, the first word a baby hears should be the Azaan. The Azaan is the
Muslim call to prayer. The prayer is first spoken in the right ear, then the left. This is one of the most essential
practices immediately following the birth of a baby.
First Sweets
An elderly family member usually does this practice. If an elder is not available, then it can be done by the
baby’s parents. The person administering the rite places honey on their finger and then puts it in the baby’s
mouth. The baby tasting something sweet is meant to affect their personality.
First Feeding
Following the birth, the baby will begin to feed. To celebrate the baby’s development, monetary gifts are given
to the father’s sisters, if he has any.
 Birth and Death
First Haircut
Seven days after the birth of a baby, the head is shaved. The hair is then weighed, and the weight in
silver is donated to charity. Shaving their head is meant to show that the child is cleansed and ready to be
a Muslim.
First Welcome (Aqiqah)
On the seventh day of the baby’s life, a dinner party is thrown to welcome the child to the community.
The killing of sheep is customary: two for boys and one for girls. This is a way of giving thanks to God
for the baby’s birth.
The meat is divided into three parts and distributed to the family, those in need, and the baby’s parents.
The baby’s name is announced, and gifts are given to the baby in celebration. This event may also
happen on the 14th, 21st or later, depending on when the family can afford to throw the party.
First Ring
A lot of celebration occurs following forty days of the baby’s life. To commemorate this milestone, the
grandparents give the baby a gold ring present. The ring is then placed on the finger of the baby. Family
and friends also throw lavish parties for the baby during this time.
 Birth and Death
Birth in Japan:
• Most Japanese women aim to deliver their baby sans painkillers, an ancient belief that
stems from the Buddhist belief that labor pains must be endured as a test to prepare for the
difficulties of motherhood.
• That also means most women won’t even consider an epidural, even if their doctor
recommends it. Fathers aren’t allowed in the delivery room unless they’ve taken a prenatal
class with the mom.
• After baby arrives, the new mom traditionally stays at her parents home for at least a
month, and rests in bed for 21 days to recuperate and bond with baby, while family
members pitch in with chores.
• During this period, friends visit and eat the celebratory red rice and red bean dish osekihan.
And while crying babies aren’t exactly encouraged stateside, it’s the opposite in Japan,
where crying contests, nakizumo, are held to see which baby cries first. The Japanese
believe that babies who cry loud and often are healthier and will grow much faster.
 Birth and Death

Birth Traditions in Turkey:

• To celebrate the new baby and get milk flowing, mothers drink a traditional
beverage called lohusa serbeti (“postpartum sherbet”). It’s made with water,
sugar, cloves, cinnamon and red food coloring, and is first served to the new
mom in the hospital.
• There are no baby showers in Turkey—celebrations are postponed until after
the little one is born. Mom and baby stay home for 20 days after the delivery,
and friends stop by and also sip serbeti.
• Once 20 days have passed, mother and baby visit the homes of gift givers,
where they receive a handkerchief filled with candy (for a good-natured baby)
and an egg (for a healthy one). Their hosts also rub flour on baby’s eyebrows
and hairline to give him a long life.
 Birth and Death

Birth Traditions in Latin America

• To help ease them into motherhood, moms observe la cuarentena
(“quarantine”)—a 40-day period when they recuperate from labor by
abstaining from sex, physical activity and spicy foods.
• To let them rest and focus on caring for their infant, female relatives
and friends pitch in with household responsibilities like cooking,
cleaning and taking care of other children.
• And because the new mother’s body is considered vulnerable, she has
to wrap her belly in a cloth girdle or sash called a faja, and keep her
head and neck covered as well.
 Birth and Death

Birth Traditions in Germany

• Parents have to stick to a list of accepted names approved by the government
when filling out a birth certificate.
• If your proposed name is rejected by the Standesamt, the office of vital
statistics, you have to submit another one, and pay a fee each time. That
explains why conventional names (Marie, Sophia, Maximilian and Alexander
are high on the list these days) accounted for 97 percent of baby names last
year.
• Before the Baby Arrives
• Prenatal Classes
• Baby Showers
 Birth and Death

Death:
The news of a loved one’s death hits every person differently. The
aftermath of that news, then, takes unique forms the world over as
cultures celebrate the life and honor the death of individuals in ways
often singular to their culture.
 Birth and Death

Sky Burial:
• Sky burial is common in Tibet among Buddhists who believe in the
value of sending their loved ones’ souls toward heaven. In this ritual,
bodies are left outside, often cut into pieces, for birds or other animals
to devour. This serves the dual purpose of eliminating the now empty
vessel of the body and allowing the soul to depart, while also
embracing the circle of life and giving sustenance to animals.
 Birth and Death

Famadihana
• “Dancing with the dead” best describes the burial tradition in
Madagascar of Famadihana. The Malagasy people open the tombs of
their dead every few years and rewrap them in fresh burial clothes.
• Each time the dead get fresh wrappings, they also get a fresh dance
near the tomb while music plays all around. This ritual—translated as
the “turning of the bones”—is meant to speed up decomposition and
push the spirit of the dead toward the afterlife.
 Birth and Death

Water Burial:
• Many cultures, especially in Nordic countries, have embraced water in
their rituals of choice for the dead, from laying coffins atop cliffs
faced toward the water to actually using the water as a burial ground.
Some set bodies adrift in “death ships,” either along a river or sent out
into the ocean, giving the bodies back to the gods or places most
valued by the people of the area.
 Birth and Death

The Parade:
• Celebrating the life of the deceased can take many forms. A tradition
from Varanasi, India, involves parading the dead through the streets,
the bodies dressed in colors that highlight the virtues of the deceased
(red for purity or yellow for knowledge, for example).
• In an effort to encourage souls to reach salvation, ending the cycle of
reincarnation, the bodies are sprinkled with water from the Ganges
River and then cremated at the town’s main cremation grounds.
 Birth and Death

Tower of Silence
• One Zoroastrian tradition requires vultures to keep its ancient burial
ritual alive. In that tradition a dead body is believed to defile
everything it touches—including the ground and fire—and raising a
corpse to the sky for vultures to devour was historically the only
option.
• Bull’s urine is used to clean the body before tools, which are later
destroyed, are used to cut off clothing. The corpse is then placed atop a
Tower of Silence, out of the way of the living who could be tainted by
it.
 Birth and Death

Ashes to Death Beads:

• While countless burial traditions around the world include cremation, South
Koreans have taken it a step further by turning the ashes of the deceased into
beads.
• These beads have a bit of a shine to them and come in an array of colors, from
pink or black to turquoise. Placed inside glass vases or even open in dishes, the
beads can then take center stage inside a home, a more decorative choice than a
conventional urn.
• In a country where space is at a premium and cremation is becoming the only
realistic choice for burying the dead, getting something beautiful out of the
process gives loved ones a new tradition to embrace and an heirloom to
treasure.
 Cultural variation in symptoms

• Illness behavior refers to “the way in which symptoms are perceived,

evaluated, and acted upon by a person who recognizes some pain,
discomfort or other signs of malfunction.”
• Illness behaviors learn first in the family, vary for men and women and
for different social classes and ethnic groups.
• In Western society men are expected to tolerate pain and discomfort.
• Such cultural learning may account for the fact that women report
more symptoms.
 Compliance in different cultures

• Ethnicity and culture influence some health-determining

behavior, such as participation in screening programs and
attendance at follow-up appointments etc.

• Measures of compliance may need to be modified for

different ethnic or cultural groups. In some cases, it may
be advisable to assess patients from a cultural
perspective before making decisions about their
individual treatment.
 Food Taboos in Different Culture

• There is a ton of edible material on this planet, and each culture

decides which things are considered “food” and which things aren’t.
Food Taboos
• The things people in a given culture will not eat are called food
taboos.
• For example, people in the United States usually don’t eat insects, but
people in many other cultures do. And, some cultures eat rats, but
people in the United States do not. So insects and rats are food taboos
for the USA, but not for other cultures.
 Food Taboos in Different Culture

• Some food taboos are related to religion — for example, Jews and
Muslims do not eat pork. Other taboos are related to stage in life. For
example, in the Upper Manya Krobo district of Ghana, women are
prohibited from eating snails, rats, hot foods, and animal lungs while
they are pregnant.
• And, among a tribe in Papua New Guinea, a man cannot eat fresh
meat, only smoked meat, once he is married. And food taboos can be
related to illness. For example, the Orang Asli people of West
Malaysia are prescribed food taboos by a medicine man when they are
sick.
 Status

• Social status is the honour or prestige attached to one's position in society (one's
social position). It may also refer to a rank or position that one holds in a group,
for example son or daughter, playmate, pupil, etc.

• Social status, the position or rank of a person or group within the society, can be
determined two ways. One can earn their social status by their own achievements,
which is known as Achieved Status. Alternatively, one can be placed in the
stratification system by their inherited position, which is called Ascribed Status.
 Deviance

• Deviance, in a sociological context, describes actions or behaviours

that violate social norms, including formally-enacted rules, as well as
informal violations of social norms (e.g., rejecting folkways and
mores).

• Examples: Not obeying commands of parents, criminal behaviour,

unhealthy habits etc.
 Alienation

• Alienation is the experience of isolation and misery resulting from

powerlessness.

• It is a condition in social relationships reflected by a low degree of

integration or common values and a high degree of distance or
isolation between individuals, or between an individual and a group of
people in a community or work environment."
 Socialization

• Socialization can be defined as “The lifelong process of social interaction and learning through which a child
learns the intellectual, physical, and social skills needed to function as a member of society.

• As a lifelong process, socialization takes place in many social settings (e.g., family, school, peer groups, mass
media, religion and workplace).

• Socialization contributes to the formation of personality (i.e., the patterns of behavior and ways of thinking
and feeling that are distinctive for each individual) and ultimately a sense of self. Socialization is not possible
without interaction e.g. Anna and Isabelle were neglected orphan children, the latter with deaf-mute mother
were unable to speak and behave like other normal persons when they were brought to society.
 References

• https://www.participatelearning.com/blog/the-4-stages-of-culture-
shock/#:~:text=Culture%20shock%20generally%20moves
%20through,frustration%2C%20adjustment%2C%20and
%20acceptance.
• https://www.smartcells.com/birth-traditions-from-around-the-world/
• https://www.thebump.com/a/birth-traditions-around-the-world
• https://www.ucbaby.ca/baby-birth-traditions-
• pakistan#:~:text=The%20killing%20of%20sheep%20is,to%20the
%20baby%20in%20celebration.
• https://www.britannica.com/list/7-unique-burial-rituals-across-the-
world