Abstract
Individuals can acquire cultural knowledge from many sources, including personal experience, informal learning, and schooling. Identifying these distinct source models and describing personal variation in their use present ongoing theoretical and methodological challenges. Three questions are of particular importance: (1) how to determine if there is more than one cultural model, (2) how to characterize the differences between models, and (3) how to assess the degree to which individuals draw from these different models. This article addresses these questions by analyzing the theories endorsed by women and their maternal care providers about the causes, signs, and treatments of postpartum hemorrhage in rural Bangladesh. Two cultural models are identified, each associated with traditional birth attendants or professionally trained "skilled" birth attendants. More broadly, the article discusses the statistical issues involved in determining the existence of multiple cultural models in a population.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 315-337 |
Number of pages | 23 |
Journal | Field Methods |
Volume | 20 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2008 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Consensus analysis
- Cultural variation
- Postpartum hemorrhage
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Anthropology