Indigenous Identification by Health Professionals in a Mexican Hospital Setting

Med Anthropol. 2020 Feb-Mar;39(2):123-138. doi: 10.1080/01459740.2019.1612394. Epub 2019 May 31.

Abstract

In this article, we describe and analyze the identification of people as Indigenous by health-care professionals in a hospital in Mexico City. This socially constructed identification is based on a "contrasting identity" of essentialist and stereotyped categories (language, place of origin, cultural practices, and poverty) that promote the normalization of inequity, marginality, and racism. The ambivalence of the invisibility of the indigenous in the health-care context also marginalizes and generates inequity when it comes to the access to healthcare.

Keywords: Mexico; México; contexto hospitalario; etnografía hospitalaria; hospital ethnography; identificación de indígenas; indigenous identification; invisibilidad; invisibility; marginalización; marginalization; medical setting.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Anthropology, Medical
  • Health Personnel / statistics & numerical data
  • Health Services Accessibility*
  • Healthcare Disparities / ethnology*
  • Hospitals
  • Humans
  • Indians, North American / ethnology*
  • Mexico / ethnology
  • Middle Aged
  • Poverty / ethnology
  • Racism / ethnology
  • Social Marginalization