Interculturalism as a means toward cultural inclusiveness and cross-cultural dialogue:

Stefan Gröschl

doi:10.5204/ijcis.v12i2.1345

Abstract

Using a case study approach, this article explores the role of the Jose Domingo de Obaldia maternity hospital in Western Panama, and its policies and practices for responding to the cultural differences between Panamanian hospital staff and pregnant Ngöble Buglé patients, and their different understanding of health and illness that has been shaped by principles of traditional medicine. Using a range of in-depth interviews with hospitality staff and management and intercultural interpreters, this study explores how cultural aspects and differences can be of a compound and complex nature, requiring strong intercultural understanding, awareness andcross-cultural dialogue. The case of the Ngöble Buglé illustrates how interculturalism can foster such cultural inclusiveness and cross-cultural dialogue, and how interculturalism can have implications for other Indigenous communities in Latin America, and for non-Indigenous communities facing increasingly cultural diverse environments and contexts.

Highlights

Aside from the Intercultural Ward staff learning to see the patient as a person, medical staff have started to understand and to adapt to the particular Ngäbe Cosmo vision that influences their Ngäbe patients’ view of the world in general, and how they deal with pregnancies and other health- and illness-related aspects in particular—as illustrated in the example given by the Director of the Research and Teaching Division: For example, in the Ngäbe Cosmo vision, the concept of time has a different meaning than in our context, and this has obviously implications for us when we want to treat the Ngäbe
This study has explored the concept of interculturalism at both a meso- and a micro-social level
The staff of the Intercultural Ward moved beyond simple, technical language translations to more complex interpretations and transmissions of cultural elements and characteristics that describe the Ngäbe’s Cosmo vision and their views about pregnancy and health- and illness-related aspects

Summary

Introduction

According to all the interviewees, initially the intercultural initiative was seen solely as an important step forward to address the language problems between medical staff and pregnant Ngäbe women, and the medical staff’s lack of cultural sensitivity and its lack of awareness of the context and conditions in which the Ngäbe have been living—as the Director of the Research and Teaching Division recalled: I have been working for this hospital for 24 years.

Results

Conclusion