Global Journal of Research and Review

The ethnological approach to health items: A contribution to archaeological research on African health thought

1^st Edition of international Conference on Archaeology and Anthropology
October 01-02, 2018 London, UK

Abe N Doumy Noel

Alassane Ouattara University, Cote d Ivoire

ScientificTracks Abstracts: Glob J Res Rev 2018

DOI: 10.21767/2393-8854-C1-002

Abstract

The ethnological approach to health items is defined as an innovative field of investigation in the disciplinary field of health socio-anthropology. This is a site of intense research on all material objects related health problems. The objective of the research is to understand how cultural communities in their history think and interpret various diseases according to their own perceptions and representations from these objects. In this case, the research is applied to the Ivorian ground of West Africa as an experiment. This research field is fundamentally distinct from the field of pharmacopoeia and mystical practices connected to talisman. According ethnocultural areas in Côte d’Ivoire, these health items are varied. Over time, some of these objects have undergone metamorphosis. Others have disappeared under the law of evolution like the loss of animal and plant biodiversity. However, the results indicate four groups of objects. These are the objects in healing power and/ or preventive; the symbolic objects of worship; conditionings models of drug products; and technological instruments of preservation, processing or preparation in African medicine. We discover in this classification, cross-functional objects but also specific character to objects. The other observation is that the diseases targeted by these objects are either the same or different passing from one culture to another. The interest and the stake of this research consist in showing another track of collaboration between the two disciplines which are ethnology and archeology. The game challenges include the history of cross-cultural perceptions of health and disease and sustainable development in the field of intangible cultural heritage. Recent Publications 1. Abe N N (2012) The social institution pubertaire and the question of execision in Côte d’Ivoire : a cultural perspective of solution. European Scientific Journal. 8(25):251-266. 2. Abe N N (2013) The anthropological foundations of Akan genetic thought in Côte d’Ivoire. European Scientific Journal 9(5):56-70. 3. ABE N N et ANOUA A. S. J. (2013). La maternité précoce dans la problématique des comportments procréateurs à risque en milieu rural Akyé de Kodioussou (C I). Letters d’Ivoire 016 : 257-265 4. Abe N N (2013) The theory of reproductive transition: a tool of the maternal and child health observatory in Africa. Balafons Publishing. Pages:229. ISBN:978-2- 919661-80-0. 5. Abe N N and Nguessan K H (2015) Discontinuité du suivi prénatal en milieu urbain ivoirien dans le contexte de gratuité des soins de santé maternels : influence des facteurs organisationnels. Letters d’Ivoire 020: 257-265.

Biography

Abé N’Doumy Noël holds a PhD in Sociology and Health Anthropology (1993) from the University of Abidjan and a Doctorate of State in Human Sciences (2008) from Alassane Ouattara University, Côte d’Ivoire respectively. He is the founder of the Research Laboratory on African Health Thought - Côte d’Ivoire (LARPAS-CI) and the Laboratory for Studies and Research in Reproductive Transition (LERTG). He is the author of several publications in national and international journals.

E-mail: ndoumyabe@yahoo.fr