Publication:
African Traditional Healers : The Economics of Healing

dc.contributor.author Leonard, Kenneth L.
dc.date.accessioned 2012-08-13T13:10:12Z
dc.date.available 2012-08-13T13:10:12Z
dc.date.issued 2001-05
dc.description.abstract The traditional healers are a source of health care for which Africans have always paid. Even with the expansion of modern medicine, healers are still popular and command fees exceeding the average treatment cost at most modern practitioners. Are traditional healers miracle workers or are they charlatans? Clearly either view is too extreme. Traditional healers are not perfect. Nor, however, can they be charlatans. This article advances a view of traditional healers that relies on neither supernatural power nor manifest ignorance. It suggests that healers remain popular despite abundant modern medicine because they have wisely used an important economic contract to the mutual benefit of their practice and the population they serve. While the contrasts between traditional medicine and modern medicine are many, the article focuses on the differences in the way traditional and modern healers are paid. An important element of their practice has been previously ignored: traditional healers receive the bulk of their payment only if the patient is cured. en
dc.identifier http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/05/1574609/african-traditional-healers-economics-healing
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10986/10806
dc.language English
dc.publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
dc.relation.ispartofseries Indigenous Knowledge (IK) Notes; No. 32
dc.rights CC BY 3.0 IGO
dc.rights.holder World Bank
dc.rights.uri http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/
dc.subject ASTHMA
dc.subject DOCTORS
dc.subject EMPLOYMENT
dc.subject HEALTH CARE
dc.subject HEALTH ECONOMICS
dc.subject HEALTH SERVICES
dc.subject HEALTH STATUS
dc.subject HEALTH SYSTEMS
dc.subject HOSPITALS
dc.subject ILLNESSES
dc.subject MALARIA
dc.subject MEDICATION
dc.subject MODERN MEDICINE
dc.subject PARENTS
dc.subject PATIENTS
dc.subject PHYSICIANS
dc.subject RURAL HEALTH CARE
dc.subject SMOKING
dc.subject SURGERY
dc.subject TRADITIONAL HEALERS TRADITIONAL MEDICINE
dc.subject HEALTH ECONOMICS
dc.title African Traditional Healers : The Economics of Healing en
dc.title.alternative Les guerisseurs traditionnels africains : l'economie de la sante en
dspace.entity.type Publication
okr.crosscuttingsolutionarea Gender
okr.date.disclosure 2001-11-07
okr.doctype Publications & Research :: Brief
okr.doctype Publications & Research
okr.docurl http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/05/1574609/african-traditional-healers-economics-healing
okr.globalpractice Health, Nutrition, and Population
okr.globalpractice Governance
okr.globalpractice Health, Nutrition, and Population
okr.identifier.externaldocumentum 090224b0855bd9a8_2_0
okr.identifier.internaldocumentum 1574609
okr.identifier.report 22385
okr.language.supported en
okr.pdfurl http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2001/11/07/000094946_01092604010381/Rendered/PDF/multi0page.pdf en
okr.region.administrative Africa
okr.topic Law and Development :: Health Law
okr.topic Health, Nutrition and Population :: Adolescent Health
okr.topic Health Monitoring and Evaluation
okr.topic Health Systems Development and Reform
okr.topic Gender :: Gender and Health
okr.topic Health, Nutrition and Population
okr.unit AFT: Opertnl Quality & Knowledge (AFTQK)
okr.volume 1
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