1. The Ethnography of an Illness -- 2. Arrival -- 3. The People in a Hamlet: Watalu -- 4. Paths and Gardens -- 5. A Question of Marriage and a Fall -- 6. The Hunting in July and Another Fall -- 7. At the Health Centre -- 8. The Perception of his Illness -- 9. The Opening of Malyi -- 10. Contrasts of Pace: Acute and Chronic -- 11. Imagery without Influence -- 12. Failure yet Belief -- 13. Losing Hope -- 14. The Death of Dauwaras -- 15. The Period of Mourning -- 16. Aftermath
Summary
"A serious illness may bring other events into focus. This book is about the circumstances surrounding an illness which struck a man in middle life, its impact on him and on the people of his West Sepik village. It records both failure and continuing belief - the failure of local treatments, Western medicine, and of a great communal effort to bring a spirit to heal him. The issues of distress, isolation in illness, and the hope of relief are universal ones, but in this setting in New Guinea they have to be placed in a framework of tentative explanations because of the harsh material conditions. To follow the course of this man's illness is to see how illness can reshape events and test social ties."--BOOK JACKET
