The infancy of Edward Shelonga

In this book I present and analyse a case history based on the health experiences of a Nkoya boy in the early years of his life during the 1970s. This case sheds considerable light on one of the crucial medical problems of the Third World: the interplay between cosmopolitan (i.e. Western, modern) medicine, and such other forms of medicine as exist locally; the latter forms usually are part and parcel of the local religion. Use is made of the 'extended-case method' of the famous Manchester School, which sees in the relationships between people within one social field, and in the evolvement of these relationships over time, the major key to structural principles, in casu those governing the interplay between the various forms of medicine.