Russel-Research-Method-in-Anthropology

532 Chapter 18
TABLE 18.4
Decisions to Take a Child to the Doctor in San José, Mexico
mother doctor days cause muc. blood smell freq loose fever color mouth eyes vomit gland
1 N 2 C Y N Y Y Y Y A Y Y N N
2 N 20 E Y N Y Y Y N A Y Y N N
3 Y 8 T N N Y Y Y Y N Y Y N N
4 Y 8 C Y N Y N Y Y V . . Y Y
5 N 3 P Y N Y Y Y Y A Y Y N Y
6 N 3 L N N Y Y Y N B Y Y N N
7 Y 8 D Y N Y Y Y N A Y Y N N
8 N 1 D N N Y Y Y N A . . N N
9 N . C Y N N Y Y N B Y Y N N
10 N 3 O N N Y Y Y N A Y Y N N
11 N 2 C N N N N N N A . . N N
12 N . C N N Y Y Y N A Y Y N N
13 N 4 C N N Y N N N A Y Y N N
14 Y 4 E N N Y Y Y Y V Y . N N
15 Y 3 I Y Y Y Y Y Y A Y Y Y N
16 N 2 C Y N N Y Y N V Y Y N N
17 N 7 E N N N Y Y N A N N N N
Cause
Color
C food D teething A yellow
L worms T dirt V green
E empacho P parasites B white
I indigestion O other N black
SOURCE: G. W. Ryan and H. Martínez (1996). Data used with permission of the authors.
her child to the doctor. (The codes for cause and color are from Spanish; see
the legend just below the table.)
Table 18.4 makes it clear that mothers took their children to the doctor if
the child had blood in the stool, had swollen glands, or was vomiting, or if the
diarrhea had lasted more than 7 days. None of the other factors played a part
in the final decision to take the child to the doctor.
But remember: There were seven different treatments, and mothers often
try several treatments in any given episode. Ryan and Martínez looked at the
pattern of circumstances for all seven treatments and built a model that
accounted for the treatment decisions made by the 17 mothers. Their model
had just six rules and three constraints.
Figure 18.4 shows the model as a series of IF-THEN statements. Notice the
constraints: For a woman to choose a modern medication, she has to know
about it and it has to be easy to get and cheap. The constraints to the rules are
derived from ethnographic interviews. So was the observation that mothers
distinguished between curative and palliative treatments—treatments that stop
diarrhea and treatments that simply make the child feel better until the episode