The Role of Ethnography in Orang Asli Health Research: A Lesson from Lanoh Hunter-Gatherers.

PERAK (Malaysia); MALAYSIA

In recent years, the number of targeted studies investigating the obstacles to an equitable health system for the Orang Asli of Malaysia has increased. In this article, I will argue that the validity of brief, interview and focusgroup-based qualitative studies aimed at understanding Orang Asli point of view may be enhanced when complemented by long-term participant observation-based research. I illustrate this point with three examples of how cultural beliefs and practices impacted Lanoh women's and children's health in northern Perak. These examples suggest that the professed aim to achieve a health regime integrated within local sociocultural contexts is only feasible when research into perceptions and worldviews embraces an ethnographic framework and a medical anthropological perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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