"I am South Sudanese!": the cultural construct of health among southern Sudanese in central Iowa
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Abstract
The cultural construct of health for any group of people is essential to know when desiring to implement a health plan. It is the purpose of this thesis to define this construct for the southern Sudanese of central Iowa. Because the southern Sudanese have a complex past, it is important to include such a history into their construct of health. Their record includes a traditional lifestyle which is very different from their reality now, a history of assault from peoples occupying what is present day northern Sudan, a colonial period governed by British/Egyptian officials, an introduction to biomedicine by Christian missionaries, the open war between northern and southern Sudan since the 1950's, kinship ties and gender roles, and a move to central Iowa which incorporates the southern Sudanese into a biomedical health system. Each of these factors is integral to the formation of a southern Sudanese identity and construct of health. The United States becomes increasingly multi-cultural through many processes, one of which is immigration. In order to facilitate multiple understandings of health and how to achieve and maintain it, prescribed techniques for appreciating these viewpoints must be created in order to accomplish medical aide, which can be understood and followed.