The question of what is morally right and wrong in society is a common topic among people. The problem in solving this problem is that people have different beliefs and values about what would be considered right and wrong because of where they come from and their culture. The term cultural relativism describes the acceptance and understanding of these differences. The term offers an equivocal answer to the question, but as human beings we are always looking for a definitive answer. Cultural relativism provides the idea that no culture is right or wrong and that a culture cannot be judged by its beliefs. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is an excellent example of how two cultures collide due to their differences in beliefs, customs, and values and eventually come to understand each other. The book follows the tribulations of a Southeast Asian family from Laos, the Lees, who move to Merced, California as refugees. The discomfort lies in the health problems of the youngest daughter, Lia, and in her care between the family and the American doctors. The main source of indifference is the fact that the hospital and its employees are unfamiliar with the customs and culture of the Hmong people and, instead of attempting to consider their beliefs, expect the Lee family to assimilate to American ideals. The misunderstanding occurs when Foua is in hospital for the birth of her youngest daughter Lia. It is important to know that in Hmong culture, hospitals are not considered places where people are treated and rumors cause the Hmong people to not trust anything that has to do with modern medicine. Doctors are said to eat their patients' organs. This results in an automatic bias against doctors and hospitals for Hmong people. Ironically, doctors at Merced Community Medical Center are unaware of the Hmong custom of burying a baby's placenta and usually automatically dispose of the placenta. MCMC doctors assume that when Hmong mothers ask for their baby's placenta, they want to eat. For this reason, the hospital typically denies their request for the placenta and incinerates it, ignoring its significance to Hmong patients. Foua never asked for Lia's placenta, however, this ignorant action further foreshadows the quality of the relationship between the Hmong people and the hospital. Three months after Lia's birth, she begins having seizures. Eventually, with the help of a cousin who could translate for the Lee family, Dan Murphy diagnoses Lia with epilepsy. Another example of misunderstanding is the different attitude towards what Western medicine calls epilepsy. In America, epilepsy is seen as a disorder that needs to be treated. In Hmong culture, they call it "quag dab peg" and for Hmong it means the ability to become a spiritual healer, which is a highly respected position. Lia's primary doctors, Neil Ernst and Peggy Philp, prescribe numerous medications for Lia and ignore the presence of a language barrier and the fact that the family had hesitations in treating this "disease" due to cultural ideals. Ernst and Philp automatically assumed that the Lee family would comply with the action plan to improve Lia's health and because of this, Lia's health worsened. Instead of trying to understand why the plan was not being followed, Ernst and Philp came to the conclusion that the Lees were unintelligent or deceiving them, which led to Lia being taken away from her home by CPS. These examples are just some of the cases where one culture has been misunderstood by another. There..
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