What are culturally bound diseases?

Question

What are culturally bound diseases?

Answer 1

If you look at a Social Problems textbook written in England, along with the usual poverty, racism, crime, etc, you may find a chapter on "Soccer Hooliganism."  It is not considered a social problem in the US, but it is considered a rampant problem in England where they are more passionate about soccer, and violence erupts. It's culture-bound.

Answer 2

Culture Specific Diseases

There are some diseases that have very limited distributions around the world due to the fact that they are caused by unique combinations of environmental circumstances and cultural practices.  These are generally referred to as culture specific diseases or culture bound syndromes.  Some cause relatively minor health problems while others are very serious and can even be fatal.  An example of a relatively harmless culture specific medical condition was "rave rash" in England during the late 1990's.  This afflicted young women who went to "raves", or large-scale pop music dance parties that went on all night long.  Aggressive dance motions without wearing a bra sometimes lead to a painful rash on their nipples--hence "rave rash."

  

Kuru is a fatal culture specific disease of the brain and nervous system that was found among the South Foré people of the eastern New Guinea Highlands.  Until recently, it was thought that kuru is caused by a virus with a prolonged incubation period.  Evidence now points to prions as being the cause.  The symptoms include palsy, contracted face muscles, and the loss of motor control resulting in the inability to walk and eventually even eat.  Kuru victims become progressively emaciated.  The South Foré called this disease "trembling sickness" and "laughing sickness."  The latter description was due to the fact that the face muscles of victims were constricted in a way that looked like a smile.  Death almost always occurs within 6-12 months of the onset of symptoms.

Culture Specific Mental Disorders

Apparently, mental illness is present in all societies.  However, the frequencies of different types of mental illness vary as do the social connotations.  What is defined as a mild form of mental illness in one culture may be defined as normal behavior in another.  For instance, people in western societies who regularly carry on animated conversations with dead relatives or other supernatural beings are generally considered mentally ill.  The same behavior is likely to be considered healthy and even enviable in a culture that has an indigenous world-view.  Such a person would be thought fortunate for having direct communication with the supernatural world.  Traditionally among many Native American societies, dreams and the visionary world were, in a sense, more real and certainly more important than the ordinary world of humans.

While mental illness is found in most, if not all, societies, there are unique culture influenced forms that these illnesses can take.  They are culture bound syndromes.  An example is Windigo psychosis  This condition was reported among the Northern Algonkian language group of Indians living around the Great Lakes of Canada and the United States.  Windigo psychosis usually developed in the winter when families were isolated by heavy snow for months in their cabins and had inadequate food supplies.  The initial symptoms of this form of mental illness were usually poor appetite, nausea, and vomiting.  Subsequently, the individual would develop a characteristic delusion of being transformed into a Windigo monster.  These supernatural beings eat human flesh.  People who have Windigo psychosis increasingly see others around them as being edible.  At the same time, they have an exaggerated fear of becoming cannibals.  A modern medical diagnosis of this condition might label it paranoia because of the irrational perceptions of being persecuted.  In this case, it is the Windigo monsters who are the persecutors--they are trying to turn people into Windigo monsters like themselves.  In contemporary North American culture, the perceived persecutors of paranoids are more likely to be other people or, perhaps, extra terrestrial visitors.  Victims of Windigo psychosis experienced extreme anxiety and sometimes attempted suicide to prevent themselves from becoming Windigo monsters.

Answer 3

I believe that they are diseases that affect specific cultures. For example, sickle cell anemia affects the black population. There are many other examples if you look up cultures and it's diseases.