Faith and the Pursuit of Health: Cardiometabolic Disorders in Samoa

Medical Anthropology

by Jessica A. Hardin

Faith and the Pursuit of Health explores how Pentecostal Christians manage chronic illness in ways that sheds light on health disparities and social suffering in Samoa, a place where rates of obesity and related cardiometabolic disorders have reached population-wide levels. Pentecostals grapple with how to maintain the health of their congregants in an environment that fosters cardiometabolic disorders. They find ways to manage these forms of sickness and inequality through their churches and the friendships developed within these institutions. Examining how Pentecostal Christianity provides many Samoans with tools to manage day-to-day issues around health and sickness, Jessica Hardin argues for understanding the synergies between how Christianity and biomedicine practice chronicity. 

214 pages, Hardcover

Published October 26, 2018

Reviews

[Sydney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for an Anthropology class and I really enjoyed it. It really makes you think about the way we look at certain things and how our culture plays into the things we do. From someone who is interested in medicine, I found it particularly interesting how culture and faith played into cardiometabolic diseases and other illnesses. 7/10 read!