How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
I could not help feeling that something was missing [...] and that her parents' name for it—her plig, or soul—was as good a term as any. (15.2)
Miraculously, Anne Fadiman finds a middle ground between the two perspectives. Naturally, she appreciates the power of science. She's grown up with it, after all. Despite this, she realizes that Hmong spirituality can reach certain truths that you'd miss out on by treating the scientific method like Holy Scripture.
Quote #8
Lia's case had confirmed the Hmong community's worst prejudices about the medical profession and the medical community's worst prejudices about the Hmong. (17.10)
Well that's no good. Lia's ordeal creates an even bigger rift between the Hmong and their doctors. Both sides now believe the worst of the other: that they're untrustworthy, selfish, and maybe a little stupid. Once again, we watch as both sides of the debate reduce the other to stereotypes with little resemblance to reality.
Quote #9
Hmong culture, as Blia Yao Moua observed to me, is not Cartesian. Nothing could be more Cartesian than Western medicine. (17.43)
Let's back up a sec and remind ourselves that Cartesian has to do with René Descartes, the dude responsible for basically breaking philosophy way back in the 1600s with his thoughts on logic, the mind, and the body, and with gems like "I think, therefore I am." Fast-forward again. Logic isn't so valued much in Hmong culture. As it happens, it's also one of the key components to the scientific method, which, thanks partly to Descartes, has become pretty deeply ingrained in the Western mindset. Funny how that works out, huh? In the end, the Hmongs' resistance to Western medicine and science can be boiled down to this fact.