Mothers, Medicine and Morality in Rural Mali

Book excerpt: How to understand the simultaneity of parental love and care with inaction when a child is ill? This question inspired author Lianne Holten to conduct the ethnographic study presented in this book. Holten worked and lived in the isolated village of Farabako (Mali) to help establish a maternity clinic. She clearly describes the tension between Western biomedical thinking and local ideas on health. Holten explains how biomedical assumptions make the mothers' actions appear incomprehensible, but she also shows the logic within the local context. This study contributes to the understanding of the importance of local moralities in health and will be useful for public health initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa. (Series: Mande Worlds - Vol. 6)