On Wed, 16 Dec 1998, cathy wrote:
> Also, if you want to 'sacrifice' a disease to challenge the status quo, CFS
> won't do it. You'll just confirm everyone's suspicions. Why not pick a
> disease like cancer? Gasp, but it would be so cruel to say that cancer is
> cultural.
Actuall, this is one of the things I came up against yesterday thinking about illness and culture. I sat at my desk listing illnesses, trying to find something that wasn't cultural at some level. Cancers? Nope. linked to environment and diet. Diabetes/ Nope. related to diet (well sort of, in a world where people dont eat sugar, I don't think you'd see it much). Heart disease? Stress and diet. Heart attacks, ditto. Car accidents? Drug overdoses, AIDS, car accidents, domestic violence? Ditto ditto ditto. So on one level, the culture thing is irrelevant, but CFS, along with environmental illness and anorexia, becoming interesting because they are are so *contemporary*.
I can't believe I'm awake this early...
frances