Russel-Research-Method-in-Anthropology

528 Chapter 18
had this illness in the family before, and they now know of the remedy that benefited
the illness on the previous occasion. What do you think they are going to
do? (ibid.:137)
This vignette combines the condition of a serious illness (level 3 on gravity
in tables 18.1 and 18.2), with lack of accessibility (no money), and a known
TABLE 18.1
Young and Garro’s Decision Table Showing How Pichatareños Choose
an Initial Method of Treating an Illness
Rules: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Conditions
gravity a 1 1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3
known home remedy b Y N N Y N
faith c F M (F) F M F M (M)
accessibility d N Y
Choices
self-treatment X X
curer X X X
practicante X X X
physician
a. 1 nonserious, 2 moderately serious, 3 grave
b. Y yes, N no
c. F favors folk treatment, M favors medical treatment
d. Y money and transportation available, N either money or transportation not available
SOURCE: Reprinted by permission of Waveland Press, Inc., from J. C. Young and L. C. Garro, Medical Choice
in a Mexican Village, 1981 (reissued 1994), p. 154. All rights reserved.
X
remedy that can be applied at home. Young and Garro used the three levels of
gravity, two possible conditions of knowing a remedy (yes and no), and two
possible conditions of accessibility (yes and no) in making up the vignettes,
which meant that they had to make up eight of them. Each vignette was presented
to each informant for a response. Tables 18.1 and 18.2 show the decision
tables for Young and Garro’s data.
From these qualitative data, collected in structured interviews, Young and
Garro developed their decision model, for the initial choice of treatment. The
model, containing nine decision rules, is shown in table 18.1. Rule number 1,
for example, says that if the illness is not serious and there is a known home
remedy, then treat the illness yourself. Rule number 9 says that for grave illnesses
there is an implicit understanding that physicians are better (hence the
M in parentheses), so if there is money, then go to a physician.
Rule number 9 also says that for the few cases of very grave illnesses where