K'iche' expressions of wellness and illness in disputed fields of care: A comparative analysis of Maya intra-cultural therapeutic and cross-cultural biomedical care (Guatemala)

Taking the study of language use in health care as its focus, this investigation seeks to learn what some of the cultural and linguistic factors are that complicate cross-cultural medical interactions between the K'iche' Maya and Ladino (non-indigenous) health practitioners in Nima', Guatemala. Nima', a town of approximately 14,000 inhabitants, is located in Guatemala's Western Highlands at the center of the K'iche' speaking region. By comparatively analyzing ethnographic and linguistic data on (Ladino) physician-(Maya) patient and (Maya) Healer-(Maya) wellness-seeker curative interactions, I ask how K'iche' ways of speaking, sensing , and expressing wellness, illness, and care are communicated, interpreted and confounded in these desperate and often disputed fields of care. The questions that guide and shape this study are as follows: (1) What are the background assumptions of ( a) the K'iche' and (b)  non-indigenous health-care professionals about wellness, illness and care? (2) What are the understandings on each side about how a curative encounter should be carried out? (3)  How does the coming together of these two systems of beliefs and these two communicative styles lead to the reduction of efficient health-care communication and provision despite the best intentions?...