This project supports the dissertation research of a cultural anthropologist from Syracuse University. The project will study the use of traditional medicine by rural poor in three communities in the Dominican Republic: one of Haitian, one of Spanish identity, and one of African-American descendants of nineteenth-century migrants. The project will focus on women healers and will use a combination of participant observation, in-depth interviews and survey research to study the healer's role in their societies and the differences in usage of these traditional healers as opposed to urban biomedical physicians in these three cultural communities.. This research is important because most poor areas of the world are underserved by trained biomedical physicians, and understanding the roles and activities of traditional healers will aid planners to develop programs of health care for underserved rural areas in developing countries.
