Deep Cultural Meaning Research Articles

Insight into the Beneficial Use of Iru An African Condiment from Parkia Biglobosa

The composition and activity of the gut microbiota, which is essential for preserving health, are greatly influenced by the food that humans eat. Iru, a traditional West African fermented condiment, is derived from Parkia biglobosa seeds and is a sought-after ingredient in West African cuisine due to its unique aroma, flavor, and texture. Iru is a spice that adds depth to stews, soups, and sauces in West African cooking, especially in Nigeria and Cameroon. Due to the fermentation process, which transforms complex ingredients into more easily absorbed forms, it has a distinct flavor and fragrance. Beyond only eating, iru has a deep cultural meaning that is frequently emphasized in ceremonies, festivals, and customs. Generations of people have used this fermenting technique. Iru is a traditional condiment from West Africa that showcases the region’s culinary heritage and is a favorite condiment in West African cookery. It is made using beneficial bacteria to make distinctive, tasty, and culturally significant food items. This study investigated the effects of two distinct food components—Maggi Knorr, a chemical seasoning mixture, and Iru (Parkia biglobosa), a traditional fermented condiment from West Africa—on the intestinal microbial communities of mice. Using mice as a well-researched animal model, we will assess the short- and long-term effects of food supplementation with Maggi Knorr and Iru on microbial diversity, composition, and functional ability in the gastrointestinal tract. The metabolic activities of the microbial communities will be characterized by means of high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA genes in conjunction with metabolism analysis. This study aimed to investigate how two commonly utilized food additives, namely chemical seasoning (Maggi Star, Knorr and Vedan) and Iru (Parkia biglobosa), affect the microbial community residing in the gastrointestinal tracts of rats.

Число в калмыцких деловых текстах XVII–XVIII вв. (на материале писем хана Аюки и их русских переводов)

Introduction. A number with peculiar symbolism is closely associated with the shaping of a certain linguistic worldview, and can articulate essentials of material and spiritual culture. However, official Kalmyk texts have not yet been examined for numeric symbolism. Official narratives usually tend to desacralize numbers, the latter to function only as denoters of quantities and measures. Still, such letters may contain tokens involving numbers to be characterized as sacred and able to preserve elements of symbolic semantics in definite contexts. Goals. The article aims at revealing peculiarities of number as ethnolinguistic component in Khan Ayuka’s letters, and comparing 17th–18th century Kalmyk-language texts to synchronic Russian translations. Materials and methods. The paper analyzes letters of the Kalmyk Khan Ayuka housed at the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts and the National Archive of Kalmykia. Both synchronic and diachronic Kalmyk-to-Russian translations of 18th-century letters are investigated for culture-specific vocabulary translation strategies. The employed research methods include the descriptive, comparative ones, and that of contextual analysis. Results and conclusions. 18th-century official Kalmyk letters are abundant in numbers, the latter to be divided into ones that preserve semantic elements of sacrality — and desacralized ones that convey quantitative meanings only. Those are the numbers one, three, and four that retain symbolic semantics in materials analyzed. The number one conveys meanings of insignificance and extremely small quantity — virtually equal to ‘naught’ and ‘absence’. The number three retains its traditional messages to have been traced in etiquette formulas mentioning the Three Jewels of Buddhism. Synchronic translations articulate the deep cultural meanings of three without the number as such — with tools and concepts of a different religious tradition. Both in the original and translated texts, the number four maintains its spatial semantics in etiquette formulas mentioning the four cardinal directions — to convey ideas of dividing the world into ours and theirs, the latter to exist beyond the addresser’s locality characterized by four-side structure oriented towards the center.

Update of Linear and Non-linear Notation Systems in Modern Choral Performance

The purpose of the research is to carry out a comparative analysis of the nonlinearity concepts in architecture and music; to determine the prospects for the transformation of nonlinear notation systems in postmodern music using the technique of genetic algorithm. The relevance of the problem of explicating the concepts of nonlinear discourse in music, particularly in the system of choral performance, based on the analysis of the correlation of pre-linear and post-linear notation systems is emphasized. The research methodology is determined by comparative and systematic approaches, which allow for a comparative analysis of notation systems and verbal discourse. The scientific novelty of the research. The naive ontologism, which characterizes the models of genetic algorithms in the context of the new natural philosophy of creativity, changes the paradigm of artistic information descriptions. In music, the phenomenon of natural reproduction was marked by an appeal to the primary nature – voice, sound, and monodies. After all, such a naive ontological description is unproductive. Conclusions. The newest reality of form creation is being formed, making it possible to understand the categories of decomposition, deconstruction, the pathos of destruction and, simultaneously, the search for harmony. There are peculiar metaphors and allegories, which only emphasize the chaosogenic nature of the formation, indicating that this process is unconscious, and fits into a sufficiently structured continuum of biopopulations. All this can be noted as an analogue of natural and cultural realities and determine their “consonance”. Modern choral performance, unfortunately, is not focused on the multidimensionality of the word and its logistic deep cultural meaning. It is necessary to get out of the situation of the disorder of individual interpretations, where the spirit of the individual does not become a personality, a cathedral personality, in particular the performing, choral, and group professionalism, which has passed a huge school of monasticism, and cultural history.

Анализ описания деревни в повести И. А. Бунина «Митина любовь» с точки зрении пространственной теории «гетеротопия»

The aim of the study is to reveal the features and deep cultural meaning of the village description in the story “Mitya’s Love” by I. A. Bunin. The scientific novelty lies in the discovery of spatial contrast between the village and the city in the story and in an attempt to understand this classic work through the modern spatial theory “heterotopia”, which is aimed at heterogeneous social space. The results ob-tained have shown that the description of the village in the story is intended not only to characterize the cha¬racters and develop the plot. In fact, the image of the countryside plays an important role in the narrative discourse and ideological subtext of the story, containing I. A. Bunin’s opinion about the original Russian culture.

MeXicana Fashions: Politics, Self-Adornment, and Identity Construction ed. by Aída Hurtado and Norma E. Cantú

Reviewed by: meXicana Fashions: Politics, Self-Adornment, and Identity Construction ed. by Aída Hurtado and Norma E. Cantú Amanda Ellis meXicana Fashions: Politics, Self-Adornment, and Identity Construction. Edited by Aída Hurtado and Norma E. Cantú. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2020. iv + 330 pp. $105.00 hardcover/$34.95 paper. meXicana Fashions explores the complex cultural politics undergirding various aesthetic modes, self-adornment traditions, and shared vestimentary practices and their relationship to Xicana identity formation and cultural belonging. This dynamic, unparalleled edited collection is organized into three sections: “Rendering of Self: Personal Narratives/Personal Adornment,” “The Politics of Dress: Saying It Loud/Saying It Clear,” and “The Politics of Entrepreneurship: Making (It)/Selling (It).” Through thirteen chapters, the volume illuminates the significance of fashion, performance, and personal aesthetics as reactive processes and “strategic weapon[s] of public self-presentation” by teasing out the ways fashion is leveraged to counter the stigmatization and derogation of social identity (14). The volume’s raison d’être is to “argue that meXicanas are exposed to more fashion and aesthetic vocabularies than those floating in the hegemonic sea of fashion” and that these vocabularies constitute an array of political meanings behind Xicana sartorial choices (14). Garments like huipiles and accessories like sarapes, rebozos, and huaraches are understood as stylized multidimensional cultural phenomena that make up the tactical practices and visual semantics that variously signify meXicanidad. Ergo, the volume theoretically situates dress as an everyday mode or technology of resistance by which people “declare allegiance to particular intersectional identities or . . . refute them” (8). The single greatest strength of this collection is its diverse interdisciplinary and topical reach. meXicana Fashions forwards the analysis of poetry, novelistic [End Page 190] discourse, visual archives, blogging practices, and song lyrics by bringing together literary criticism, auto-ethnographies, transcribed platicas, and the qualitative and quantitative content analysis of mass (print) media. Several chapters contribute to discussions of decoloniality, as they relate to self-stylization, Indigenous fashion shows, and community art exhibitions. Each chapter sophisticatedly elaborates the conceptual terrain in which to wrestle with fashion in relationship to political praxis, effectively illuminating the ways sartorial choices become the mechanisms by which people articulate ownership of their bodies by refashioning, asserting, and/or reclaiming an identity through self-adornment. In the first section, Norma E. Cantú contends that though the huipil garment is linked to a specific region of origin and communal group, huipiles take on new politically charged meanings when donned by Chicanas. The volume opens with the voices of women who “claim the garment as a signifier of Indigenous identity” and who self-consciously don the huipil as a “referent to their ethnic identity, albeit one that has been denied them as mestizas” (41). Chapter 2 forwards Josie Méndez-Negrete’s intimate retrospection and visual art that recounts how sewing and embroidery became central to her survival and metamorphosis after her move to the United States. She vividly describes the huipil as part of a counter-aesthetic and as “a living, inspiring, and protective garment” that announces both her own indigeneity and her solidarity with other Indigenous women (68). In chapter 3, Micaela Díaz-Sánchez interviews women in the professoriate who use clothing as part of an expressive technique and political intervention, describing dress as part of “a choreography enacted by Chicana academics” as they navigate academic institutions (74). Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs’s auto-ethnography renders an analysis of song lyrics and common refrains to think through the complex signification of attire in chapter 4. The author ultimately asserts that though ethnic outsiders can only “abstractly and at best marginally comprehend the deep cultural meaning instilled” in Maya garments, “Indigenous clothes carry an equally immense value for Chicanas, serving as a deeply personal expression” of identity (101). Chapter 5 closes out the first section of the volume, and in it Domino Renee Perez poetically grapples with her South Texas familial legacy through close readings of vintage family photographs and dress practices to reflect on the relationships between intergenerational memory, adornment, family resemblance, and belonging. The second section begins with an ethnographic exploration of women’s use of the quinceañera tradition and consumer...

“Good job, but Bulgarian”: Identifying “Bulgarian-ness” through cultural discourse analysis

ABSTRACT By using cultural discourse analysis and ethnography, naturally occurring talk and interviews were examined for local constructions of “Bulgarian-ness” in order to formulate explicit and implicit cultural propositions about being “Bulgarian,” and cultural premises about being (“Bulgarian-ness” as problematic) and emotion (anger, frustration) as connected. This article illustrates the notion of the phrase as a local cultural symbol within Bulgarian discourse that evokes deep cultural meanings for a way of being (“Bulgarian-ness” and the West/East dichotomy), emotions (frustration, hopelessness), and a social world (the “Bulgarian situation”) as continuously negotiated in relation to conceptualizations of “Balkanism.”

I cannot baptize Satan

This article examines the communicative significance and sociolinguistic import of deathprevention names in Mbube, Ogoja Local Government Area of Cross River State, Southeastern Nigeria. Naming in the Mbube cultural context reveals deep insights into the relationship between the name-giver and the cultural framework of the Mbube people. This study is an attempt to identify death-prevention names Mbube people bestow and what they communicate in terms of ideology, spirituality and social solidarity. The study relies on Leech’s (1983) socio-pragmatic paradigm on meaning processes, which interrogates social perceptions underlying participants’ interpretation and performance of communicative action (Kasper and Rose, 2002:2). Data for the study were sourced from givers and bearers of death-prevention names in the study area. Interviews and participants observations were the key elicitation techniques with respondents who have in-depth knowledge of the history, language and culture of the Mbube people. The study gains sufficient insights from Mbube religious beliefs, cosmology and history, which resonate in the Mbube naming system generally and death-prevention names in particular. Findings reveal that Mbube death-prevention names confer honour on both the past (ancestors) and the present (living beings), and serve as symbolic resources that encode deep cultural meanings, construct identity and reinforce the notion of personhood.

The Sociolinguistics Analysis of Nanchang Subway Station Names

The naming of urban subway stations is not just a name or a symbol, looking further ahead, it also contains deep cultural meanings in semantics, as well as Nanchang metro stations. In the perspective of its connotation, it includes semantic meaning as well as abundant cultural connotation. From the view of its features, at first, it has the beauty of rhythm and melody. Besides, it is not only harmonious in matching level and oblique tones, but also very concise. In addition, it shows its charm in humanity and nature as well as its rich history. Seeing from the vision demonstrated in the name of Nanchang subway station, the subway stations in Nanchang were named after its local cities as well as cities of other province in China. What’s more, it blends celebrities in the history and the contemporary lifestyle together, thus demonstrating its unique spirit. Indeed, as a city where the army flag was raised, Nanchang has witnessed the event that the Nationalist Party was resisted by the armed Communist Party in 1927, which opened up the glorious military history of the communist party of China. However, it is a pity that the red culture related to this event was not fully embodied in the name of the subway stations, which is extremely unworthy of Nanchang, the "hero city of the world", hence hoping that this regret can be remedied in the future.

On Chinese Classic English Translation under the Guidance of Thick Translation Theory

This paper explores the deep cultural meaning of the culture-loaded terms and analyzes their corresponding translation strategies by taking Health and Pleasure (Yi Yang Bu) as the data, a chapter in Li Yu’s Casual Expressions of Idle Feeling (Xian Qing Ou Ji). The research and the practical analysis work is carried out under the guidance of Halliday’s Cultural Context Theory and Appiah’s Thick Translation Theory. The purpose of the research is to find out how to achieve context equivalence in the translation of culture-loaded terms of the Chinese Classics.

Critique of the culinary reason

AbstractPresent-day economically developed societies devote unprecedented attention to food. The culinary discourse, in all its facets, gains increasing centrality in cultures. Institutions, media, and common people are obsessed with what they eat. In Italy, a country already aware of itself with regards to food, gastronomy turns into the main concern, the most debated and cared of system of norms. Social phenomena like Slow Food and Zero Kilometer originate in Italy and then conquer the world, claiming that improving the quality of food is the way for a better planet. But what is the deep cultural meaning of this massive trend? What lies behind the culinary reason? Aesthetic neutralization of socioeconomic conflicts, chauvinistic marketing of stereotypes, and anti-intellectual subversion of sensorial hierarchies, the article contends.

The Study of English and Chinese Numerical Idioms and Their Translation

Numerical idioms have rich cultural connotations and are closely connected with culture. Along with the development of China’s reform and opening up policy, intercultural communication tends to be wider. Contrastive studies of language-culture have become increasingly important. This article is mainly a probe into the English and Chinese numerical idioms from the perspectives of definition and cultural characteristics of English and Chinese idioms and meanwhile makes a detailed analysis of the translation of numerical idioms of both English and Chinese languages with practical and theoretical effect. It will help us with language teaching and learning, translation and intercultural communication if we have a proper understanding of the differences between both English and Chinese numerical idioms. Only by mastering the deep cultural meaning of numerical idioms can we make the translation more vivid and expressive, thus effectively improving the ability of intercultural communication.

Philosophical and cultural dimensions of the transcendental

Solving complex spiritual problems of modern life leads us to rethinking its higher meanings, absolute values, essences. Philosophical and cultural worldview, as the supreme form of knowledge and comprehension of the existence of the world and man, now directs the study of the root causes, the essential foundations of the world order, the disclosure of the deep meaning of what is happening to the world, society, culture and man, focuses on the creation of universal explanatory models of things, its individual components. Philosophical and cultural reflection as analytical means of cognition involves the ability to go beyond the real spheres of being and deduces the general cultural categories of the world of thought, such as being and non-being, God and soul, time and eternity, spirit and matter, death and immortality, etc. It is in the sense of reflexive activity of philosophical and cultural consciousness that it is possible to consider any phenomenon of being not in itself, but through the prism of the space of deep cultural meanings, which testifies to the metaphysical nature of culture, which is connected with the world of higher, absolute meanings and entities. In cultural studies, there is a tremendous experience with genesis and historical development of socio-cultural life, in particular, religious and philosophical culture.

Sailing Against the Tide

To understand the experiences of Asian women in Taiwan who are adjusting to motherhood following previous pregnancy loss. Phenomenology was used as the study design, and interviews were used to collect data in a medical center in Northern Taiwan with six women who had given birth to a healthy baby after previous pregnancy loss. Following ethical approval, interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed to develop data themes. The nautical metaphor was chosen because of the fact that Taiwan is an island and surround by sea. The sea has deep cultural meaning of uncertainty in life for the Taiwanese people. A metaphor of "sailing against the tide" emerged from the data to depict three stages of the women's journey: remembering the previous journey of loss; the rising sun brings new life within; and changing tide brings new birth. The essence of their journey through the pregnancy and birth was a permutation of fear, uncertainty, and a deep desire for reassurance of fetal well-being. This study reinforces the difficulties that women have after a pregnancy loss, but examines it with a unique cultural focus. Nurses and midwives can use these findings to develop caring and understanding practices designed to help women in these circumstances. Pregnancy after a loss is never the same as a previous pregnancy, and is perceived as different from a pregnancy that other "normal" pregnant women have. Women need nurses and midwives who can provide comprehensive practical, physical, culturally specific, psychosocial, and spiritual support to help them successfully chart their journey out of profound loss.

Future Tense: The Culture of Anticipation in France between the Wars by Roxanne Panchasi

brought Ms. Teyte to this role that would give her pleasure and renown until her retirement almost half century later. In this way, the chapters pass from one woman to another and from one side of the Atlantic to the other, showing the challenges that the singers faced. International recognition came through stage and recording careers as well as writing, lecturing, teaching, and even music administration. These successes were, however , accompanied by fear of rejection and by constant financial insecurity, and problems with personal relationships plagued all three. It was clearly not an easy time to excel in the arts for even these exceptional women. Not surprisingly, in her concluding chapter Opsted reemphasizes her admiration for Georgette Leblanc, Mary Garden, and Maggie Teyte. They brought to life Mélisande, the mysterious princess, and lived full lives themselves. And, thanks to Opsted’s work, they come to life for readers in the book Debussy’s Mélisande. Metropolitan State College of Denver (CO) Ann Williams PANCHASI, ROXANNE. Future Tense: The Culture of Anticipation in France between the Wars. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2009. ISBN 978-0-8014-4670-2. Pp. 203. $39.95. Roxanne Panchasi’s masterful exposé on the uncertain times of l’entre-deuxguerres examines how French scientists, engineers, designers, military strategists, politicians, and writers conceived multiple scenarios to shape the France of the future, a nation stronger than before 1914. Each of the five chapters in Future Tense examines key objects “invested with deep cultural meaning” (5), such as the human body, Paris, the French border, French civilisation, and the French language, and explains how various observers constructed the future of France through the lens of these objects. The author first explores how engineers and designers transformed everyday life by inventing “appliances” designed to compensate for the limitations of the human body. Some, like Jules Amar’s prosthetic arm, were meant to give back autonomy and self-esteem to war veterans who had been amputated. Others helped women complete their household chores more efficiently or provided ultimate relaxation such as la chaise longue, symbol of a new line of furniture Le Corbusier had developed as “prosthetic, life-enhancing substitutes” (33). Undoubtedly, the single most important concern of the French military during l’entre-deux-guerres was the defense of the country. Panchasi examines key plans envisioned to make France invincible in the event of a new war. For example, we learn about plans to build a faux-Paris, a replica of the capital to be built away from the real city and used as decoy to save the real Paris from air raids. We also discover Le Corbusier’s vision of a new Paris, “a contemporary city” (67) where skyscrapers and large green spaces would reshape its landscape and create new landmarks. Panchasi discusses other plans such the construction of the controversial Ligne Maginot or the development of la défense passive that promoted a healthy diet and reproduction as weapons against the enemy. The author’s exploration of the interwar anxieties and fears leads her to analyze the mixed emotions of the French towards America at the end of World War I. Panchasi’s overview of popular books on the subject points out that to many, America had emerged as the “potential nation of the future,” young, modern, forward thinking, and not defined by or tied to its past. But to others, Reviews 647 the very essence of this attraction could potentially endanger the core values of France. Among the many examples of books critical of the American Way, she singles out Georges Duhamel’s America the Menace: Scenes from the Life of the Future, a work that attempted to vilify every aspect of the American culture and warned the French against the appeal of America. In her final chapter, Panchasi explains the circumstances that led to the perception that even the French language was threatened in the years directly following the war, a fear triggered by the decision to make English the second official language at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. Furthermore, the proposal for the invention of an international language, Esperanto, presented at the first meeting of the League of Nations in 1920 increased this...

Report and policy brief from the 4th Africa Conference on Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS Research: Innovations in access to prevention, treatment and care in HIV/AIDS, Kisumu, Kenya, 29 April–3 May 2007

About 520 delegates from all over Africa and 21 countries attended the conference. This report and policy brief summarises the key findings and suggested policy options that emerged from rapporteur reports of conference proceedings including the following themes: (1) Orphans and vulnerable children, (2) Treatment, (3) Prevention, (4) Gender and male involvement, (5) Male circumcision, (6) People living with HIV/AIDS, (7) Food and nutrition, (8) Socioeconomics, and (9) Politics/policy. Two (11.8%) of the 17 OVC projects from the three countries were classified as best practice interventions. Of the 83 abstracts that were accepted at the conference, only 7 (8.4%) were dealing with antiretroviral therapy (ART). There has been tremendous effort by various organisations to provide information about prevention of HIV/AIDS. Information received by adolescents has been effective in increasing their knowledge, but without positive sexual behaviour change.The conference noted the contribution of gender discrimination and violence to the HIV epidemic and the different risks that men and women face in relation to the epidemic. Social scientists need to study the deep cultural meanings attached to male circumcision among different ethnic groups to be able to guide the debate on the latest biomedical findings on the protective effect of circumcision against HIV. Palliative care and support is crucial for coping among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in order to deal with medical and psychological issues. Results from several countries have helped researchers to explore alternative ways of examining poverty in the context of HIV and AIDS. Policy frameworks which are likely to succeed in combating HIV/AIDS need to be updated to cover issues of access, testing, disclosure and stigma. In general, the conference was successful in identifying innovations in access to prevention, treatment and care in HIV/AIDS.

All this fuss about a trivial incident? women, hospitals and medical work in New South Wales, 1900-1920

The ‘woman doctor question’ was a title given to the public debates that erupted in early twentieth-century New South Wales (Australia) over the employment of women doctors in general hospitals. Two wellqualified women, Drs Susie O'Reilly and Jessie Aspinall, were rejected from hospital residencies in Sydney, which led a wide variety of groups and individuals to mobilise in print, not only to denounce the specific rejections but also to challenge the gendered thinking that underpinned them. The arguments and rhetoric of the newspaper debates turned on notions of ‘appropriate’ women's work, the gendered world of hospitals, and assumptions about the gendered nature of medical practice itself. Public discussions of the ‘woman doctor question’ provide a rich source for historians, although for some reason they have been previously overlooked. While the rejection episodes have long formed part of the mythic world of pioneering women in Australia ‘having been seized upon by early historians as vivid examples of women's professional disadvantage’, the deeper cultural meanings and consequences embedded in these debates have been neglected. This article investigates the course of the debates and why they were so passionately contested. Examining the rhetoric used during ‘all this fuss’ (as one participant dismissively phrased it) highlights the significance of the gendered body for the ways in which medical practice was perceived, and ultimately, for how medicine was practised.

All this fuss about a trivial incident? women, hospitals and medical work in new south wales, 1900-1920

Abstract The ‘woman doctor question’ was a title given to the public debates that erupted in early twentieth-century New South Wales (Australia) over the employment of women doctors in general hospitals. Two wellqualified women, Drs Susie O'Reilly and Jessie Aspinall, were rejected from hospital residencies in Sydney, which led a wide variety of groups and individuals to mobilise in print, not only to denounce the specific rejections but also to challenge the gendered thinking that underpinned them. The arguments and rhetoric of the newspaper debates turned on notions of ‘appropriate’ women's work, the gendered world of hospitals, and assumptions about the gendered nature of medical practice itself. Public discussions of the ‘woman doctor question’ provide a rich source for historians, although for some reason they have been previously overlooked. While the rejection episodes have long formed part of the mythic world of pioneering women in Australia ‘having been seized upon by early historians as vivid examples of women's professional disadvantage’, the deeper cultural meanings and consequences embedded in these debates have been neglected. This article investigates the course of the debates and why they were so passionately contested. Examining the rhetoric used during ‘all this fuss’ (as one participant dismissively phrased it) highlights the significance of the gendered body for the ways in which medical practice was perceived, and ultimately, for how medicine was practised.

SAM PELONG Dalam Perspektif Budaya Musik Minangkabau

Sampelong is not only thought of as an instrument, but also has deep cultural meanings, function and symbol for Minangkabau society. For example, the process ofmaking the instrument is associated with the goal for what the instrument is meant. Moreover, the instrument, that is thought of as the inheritance of Pre-Hindu culture, used to have an bad image in the society, that is used for sending “black magic”. Nowadays, sampelong exists in different contexts.

Cultural and biomedical meanings of the complaint of leukorrhea in South Asian women.

Among women in South Asia, the complaint of vaginal discharge (often called leukorrhea) is extraordinarily common. From a biomedical perspective, this symptom suggests that reproductive tract infection (RTI) is prevalent in the subcontinent; however, several recent studies provide evidence that the prevalence of RTI is relatively low. Women who do not have RTI frequently report the symptom of vaginal discharge. An anthropological perspective on the cultural meanings of leukorrhea can shed light on this puzzling phenomenon. According to Ayurvedic concepts of health and illness, genital secretions are considered a highly purified form of dhatu, or bodily substance, and loss of this precious substance is thought to result in progressive weakness or even death. Many South Asian women who complain of vaginal discharge also report a variety of somatic symptoms such as dizziness, backache and weakness. The link between unexplained gynaecological symptoms and mental health concerns has been explored by both psychiatrists and anthropologists in South Asia. Leukorrhea may represent a culturally shaped "bodily idiom of distress", in which concerns about loss of genital secretions reflect wider issues of social stress. Problems may arise when a symptom with deep cultural meaning is interpreted in a purely biomedical framework. In the syndromic approach to the treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), health workers are trained to treat women presumptively based on history and a risk assessment, but without clinical or laboratory confirmation of infection. A recent evaluation of this approach demonstrates that many women who complain of vaginal discharge do not have RTI, and are inappropriately treated with antibiotics. It seems likely that women are over-reporting vaginal discharge because of its deep cultural meanings, meanings that need to be understood within an anthropological rather than biomedical framework.