| Contrary to the opinion that hospitals are nearly identical clones of a global biomedical model, anthropologists are beginning to describe and interpret the variety of hospital cultures in different countries and social settings. Medical views and technical facilities may vary considerably leading to different diagnostic and therapeutic traditions. In addition, hospitals are more than places of therapeutic intervention. They may be religious institutions aimed at making converts, political tools to establish control and reward followers, places of emotion and family solidarity, workshops of science and technology, and centres of commercial activity. Hospitals are also the domain where the core values and beliefs of a culture make their presence most explicitly. What really counts, what people believe most deeply and who are truly 'related' shows itself unambiguously in periods of crisis, such as those occurring in the hospital. Hospital wards provide miniature representations of dominant social and cultural phenomena of a given society. Various authors participate in a cross-cultural project and will contribute to a collection which demonstrate this perspective. They will pay special attention to the link between the cultures within and outside the hospital. The two leading themes of the project are: the diversity of biomedical institutions in different social, cultural and political settings (in contrast to the supposed cosmopolitan uniformity of biomedicine) and the 'link' between medical practices in hospital and important features of society at large. Contribution are expected from the following countries: Bangladesh, Denmark, Germany, Ghana, Indonesia, The Netherlands, South Africa, Uganda, and United States of America. |
