Department of Social Sciences, New York University Shanghai, Shanghai, Shanghai, China
Center for Global Health Equity, NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
BMJ Glob Health. 2023 Aug;8(8). doi: 10.1136/bmjgh-2023-012349.
This paper reports and examines the results of qualitative research on the use of local cancer terminology in urban Bagamoyo, Tanzania. Following recent calls to unify evidence and dignity-based practices in global health, this research locates local medical sociolinguistics as a key place of entry into creating epistemologically autonomous public health practices. We used semistructured ethnographic interviews to reveal both the contextual and broader patterns related to use of local cancer terminologies among residents of Dunda Ward in urban Bagamoyo. Our findings suggest that people in Bagamoyo employ diverse terms to describe and make meanings about cancer that do not neatly fit with biomedical paradigms. This research not only opens further investigation about how ordinary people speak and make sense of the emerging cancer epidemic in places like Tanzania, but also is a window into otherwise conceptualisations of 'intervention' onto people in formerly colonised regions to improve a health situation. We argue that adapting biomedical concepts into local sociolinguistic and knowledge structures is an essential task in creating dignity-based, evidence-informed practices in global health.
本文报告并考察了坦桑尼亚城市巴加莫约（Bagamoyo）使用当地癌症术语的定性研究结果。本研究旨在响应近期呼吁，将统一证据和基于尊严的全球卫生实践，将当地医学社会语言学定位为创建认识论自主公共卫生实践的关键切入点。我们采用半结构化的人种学访谈，揭示了在城市巴加莫约的邓达区（Dunda Ward）居民中与使用当地癌症术语相关的具体情况和更广泛的模式。研究结果表明，巴加莫约的人们使用多种术语来描述和理解癌症，这些术语与生物医学模式并不完全吻合。本研究不仅为进一步研究在像坦桑尼亚这样的地方，普通人如何谈论和理解新出现的癌症流行情况提供了契机，也为了解对以前殖民地地区的人们进行干预以改善健康状况的其他概念提供了窗口。我们认为，将生物医学概念融入当地社会语言学和知识结构中，是在全球卫生中创建基于尊严、有证据支持的实践的一项重要任务。
