Paper short abstract:

The Giri medical landscape is characterised by a multitude of treatment options that range from indigenous and biomedical practices to Christian healing prayers and novel shamanistic rituals. This paper explores the creative employment of biomedical technology in therapeutic decision-making.

Paper long abstract:

This paper is based on extensive ethnographic research carried out in Giri (Papua New Guinea) since 2006 and investigates the ways in which Giri utilise biomedical technology to determine which therapeutic means will work for them. Aside from indigenous and biomedical practices, Christian healing prayers and non-indigenous shamanistic rituals are entangled in the local medical landscape. Patients and their therapy managers usually pragmatically employ multiple kinds of diagnostic methods and therapeutic procedures throughout an illness episode. Not uncommonly, formulated diagnoses and recommended treatment regimens differ significantly from one type of practitioner to another. This brings uncertainty for the patient and may also become a financial and emotional burden, especially for patients who suffer from long-term and chronic conditions. In order to gain clarity over their illness, Giri people make use of Western technologies in highly creative ways. A biomedical imaging technology, the X-ray machine, enjoys a certain popularity amongst the Giri where it has taken on an unexpected life. The images that the X-ray device produces can do a lot more to Giri patients than showing their anatomy to them. The X-ray is locally reinterpreted in such a way that it becomes an aid in revealing if an illness is a bodily disorder or grounded in disrupted social relations. The patient's choice of therapy depends to a large extent on these novel interpretations of X-ray photographs.