D. Penkala Gawecka

Publications of D. Penkala Gawecka

• [The patient and medicine in contemporary Kazakhstan, attitudes towards bio-medicine and complementary medicine]

  Authors: D Penkala-Gawecka

  Medycyna nowozytna : studia nad historia medycyny / Polska Akademia Nauk, Instytut Historii Nauki. 02/2001; 8(2):175-98.

  The article discusses society's attitudes towards bio-medicine and complementary medicine in Kazakhstan around the end of the 20th century. It presents the transformation of the health-care system inThe article discusses society's attitudes towards bio-medicine and complementary medicine in Kazakhstan around the end of the 20th century. It presents the transformation of the health-care system in independent Kazakhstan and its influence on the health situation of the population as well as public opinion on bio-medicine. Presented is a broad spectrum of various fields of complementary medicine which achieved great popularity especially during the 1990s. Among the reasons for that growing popularity appears to be public disenchantment with the collapsing state health-care system which is costly and ineffective. At the same time, an important factor is the durability of traditional beliefs of a magical type which is behind the wide use of nonconventional magic-religious practices -- spells and prayers. Overall public socio-economic malaise and a fear of the future are conducive to a general increase of interest in mystical beliefs and occult practices as well as a paranormal phenomena, and the flourishing of complementary medicine naturally fits into that scheme.

• Ethnopharmacological aspects of complementary medicine in a small Polish town

  Authors: D. Penkala Gawecka

  This paper is intended as an example of the anthropological perspective in ethnopharmacological studies. The contextual research is an important constituent of the anthropological approach. ItThis paper is intended as an example of the anthropological perspective in ethnopharmacological studies. The contextual research is an important constituent of the anthropological approach. It reveals the meaning of drug use and cultural efficacy of medicines (as opposed to biomedical efficacy). The article outlines the context of medicines in a small Polish town Slesin in Wielkopolska (the Greater Poland region). It concerns mainly the use of drugs in the "domestic medicine" practised mostly by women within the family and the neighbourhood. Medical pluralism - the situation of coexistence of the orthodox medicine, elements of folk medicine and new, non-orthodox therapies (the last two may be together called "complementary medicine") - is an important component of the context of drug use in this setting, as it offers various possibilities to choose from. The other factors are also pointed out : people's etiological beliefs, convictions about the nature of particular illnesses and the efficacy of medicines, some religious beliefs, economic conditions, etc. (Résumé d'auteur)