Chapter 4 Summary and Analysis

By the 1980s, the Hmong people had already begun to distrust American physicians. A Hmong woman who had immigrated to America returned to a refugee camp in Thailand and visited her fellow countrymen who remained there. They asked her countless questions about America and American medicine. Apparently, word had traveled fast and what they heard was not favorable. Of course the refugees asked about the accessibility and use of a traditional txiv neeb, but they also asked why American physicians took samples of blood and performed surgery. Keeping in mind that the Hmong believed that illnesses arise from the spiritual realm, not the physical, it made no sense to them that one person would cut into another's body. They also wondered what they did with the material afterward. Did doctors eat Hmong body parts? The question may sound ridiculous to one...