Department of Psychology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Med Anthropol. 2013;32(3):191-207. doi: 10.1080/01459740.2012.714822.
Studies of the efficacy of 'traditional' Indigenous healing often fail to consider the epistemologies that underlay specific healing traditions, especially intrinsic notions of efficacy. In this article, I critically engage the concept of efficacy by identifying two somewhat different approaches to the issue of outcome. In 'transformative' healing processes, healing is conceptualized as a journey in which the outcome goal is a transformed individual. Efficacy, then, is about incremental changes toward this goal. In 'restorative' healing processes, the goal is termination of the sickness and the restoration of health; efficacy is conceptualized as a return to a presickness state. These healing processes are illustrated with examples from the Q'eqchi Maya of Belize and Aboriginal peoples of Canada.
对“传统”土著治疗效果的研究往往没有考虑到特定治疗传统所依据的认识论，特别是内在的疗效概念。在本文中，我通过确定两种对结果问题略有不同的方法来批判性地研究疗效的概念。在“变革性”的治疗过程中，治疗被概念化为一个旅程，其结果目标是一个被改变的个体。因此，疗效是指朝着这个目标的渐进变化。在“恢复性”的治疗过程中，目标是疾病的终止和健康的恢复；疗效被概念化为回到疾病前的状态。这些治疗过程用来自伯利兹的 Q'eqchi Maya 和加拿大的土著人民的例子来说明。
