Diabetes Among The Pima Summary

In the book “Diabetes among the Pima: Stories of Survival”, the author, Smith-Morris states that more than any other population in the world, an American Indian tribe from the Southwest United States , also known as The Pima have the highest chance of having risks for type 2 diabetes. She also continues to argue in the book that the issue is not just a biomedical mater but something even larger. By living with the Pimas and studying the experiences, daily life, and views of Pima pregnant women over a decade, the author identified factors that are overlooked by research and interventions related to biomedical. In the process of studying the Pimas, the author also learn that both the indigenous population and the health care providers impact the social and cultural aspects in the community. The book took place in the Gila River

The author, Smith-Morris is a researcher and associate Professor who closely studied the correlation between the Pima and diabetes. For this research, she used oral interviews and close observation of the community by living in the community for a decade.
The author divided the book into five parts; she starts the first part with a metaphor of the diabetes and a native folk tale of ho’ok. In the story, the ho’ok, a folk-tale witch, whom the mothers in the Pima feared that they freely let her take away their children and eat them. This story of ho’ok shares similarities with the diabetes problem faced by the women in the Gila River area. In the second part of the book, the author claims that the Pimas refuse to get treated using biomedical treatment because they believe going to doctors