Heading into the sixth reading log, History 4250 has entered a new theme, Authority and Ideals. Authority and Ideals for this week’s reading revolve around medical professionals and their ability to use their elevated status and expertise to inform the public on healthy decisions, procedures and programs, influencing popular culture’s norms of health. However, the reception of these expectations are not always unanimous, as debates and a challenging of the medical professionals and the poplar culture norms is common throughout Canada’s history. In each of the articles there is a dichotomy created between whether or not to accept medical practices. Hence, doctors have great power over citizens and prescribe ideals, however these are not always received by the public wholesomely.
Doctor’s elevated position in society is apparent, as their developments in research often push citizens towards the new practices or ideals of health. Doctor’s fascination in adolescence, as a life stage, eventually forced society into accepting this new stage of life. The research and the encouraged implementation of the school medical programs for this age group, produced the acceptance in popular culture of the adolescence age group.[i] Another example of doctors clear authority and ability to prescribe ideals is that doctors were used an assimilative tool. In order for a doctor to have the ability to be assimilative there had to be a certain level of respect and authority in order for the people to accept new ways of medicine. In the case of doctors in Aboriginal communities, they often were used as a tool of assimilating the Aboriginals into European medical norms, thus superseding Aboriginal’s old ways of living. Doctor’s impact on society was clearly felt amongst society, as there opinions were held in high regard and influenced wider ideals.[ii]
The debate on adding fluoride into the water in many municipalities helps illuminate the clear dichotomy between acceptance and rejection of medical ideals. Having both the Canadian Dental Association and Canadian Medical Association’s backing, there was still a considerable split amongst residents to add fluoride to the water. Advocates from the pro-fluoride side always respected and were mindful of the recommendations made by the doctors. On the other side people were less accepting of the doctors recommendations, which degraded the status of doctors in society. The split between these two sides show the struggle between accepting doctors higher status in regards to health or using personal knowledge and doctor’s knowledge together. Doctors as being absolute, was always questioned, people often took doctors advice but used their own interpretation and experiences in conjunction with doctor’s recommendations, in order to create or accept health standards.[iii]
In the case of Hutterites, prescribed ideals of health are not always followed by the colonies. The way in which Hutterites viewed death was very different then the popular culture ideas. In Hutterite colonies surrounding death, an increased social cohesion and group identity sparked to help a person deal with death, unlike mainstream culture where social cohesion was not stressed. Therefore, Hutterite’s cultural normalities create a much different notion of death, compared to other Canadians. The prescribed ideals of mainstream culture are not uniformly accepted by Hutterites, rather their ideas of death revolve around Hutterite’s culture and experience. Much like the dichotomy of accepting medical practices amongst Canadians, the Hutterites are similar interpreting notions of health by their own ideals and cultural normality’s.[iv]
[i] Comacchio, Cynthia, “‘The Rising Generation’: Laying Claim to the Health of Adolescents in English Canada, 1920-70,” Canadian Bulletin of Medical History, 19 (2002): 139-178.
[ii] Kelm, Mary Ellen, “Doctors, Hospitals, and Field Matrons.” In Colonizing Bodies: Aboriginal Health and Healing in British Columbia, 1900-1950, Vancouver: UBC Press, 1998:
[iii] Carstairs, Catherine, “Expertise, Health, and Popular Opinion: Debating Water Fluoridation, 1945- 1980,” Canadian Historical Review, 89 (2008): 345-371.
[iv] Cacciatore, Joanne and Kara Thieleman. “We Rise Out of the Cradle and Into the Grave: An Ethnographic Exploration of Ritual, Mourning and Death on a Hutterite Colony.” Omega: Journal of Death and Dying 69, no.4 (June 2014): 357-379.