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 Philip
Dennis, professor of anthropology and sociology at Texas Tech
University, began a relationship with the Miskitu Indians in Nicaragua
more than 20 years ago. In 1977, he traveled to the country to
study a previously undescribed culturally bound illness called
grisi siknis. Since his original year-long visit to the coast,
Dennis has returned four times, indicating a strong commitment
to working with the people, language and culture.
His 1999-2000 Fulbright grant brought him back amongst the Miskitu,
this time to lecture at the newly established Universidad de las
Regiones Autonomas de la Costa Caribe de Nicaragua (URACCAN).
The university "represents a dream for many people in this multilingual,
culturally complex part of the country. For the first time, costenos
have a university of their own. . . people can work toward college
degrees and take outreach courses in such areas as environmental
resources and community health."
During a 1998 visit to Nicaragua, Dennis participated in a planning
session for URACCAN's new master's program in public health and
discovered that while a medical anthropology course was listed
in the proposed curriculum, there was no professor to teach it.
Compelled by a desire to give something back to the people from
which he had learned so much, Dennis applied for a Fulbright grant
to teach the university's medical anthropology course at its Puerto
Cabezas and Siuna campuses. Those enrolled in the master's of
public health program total 38, with 30 in Puerto Cabezas and
only eight in Siuna, a mountainous region that's tropical terrain
required Dennis to take a small airplane to class there once a
week.
At Texas Tech University, Dennis taught an anthropology course
entitled "Health, Medicine and Culture," which he adapted for
use at URACCAN. Since his course trained health workers who would
be dealing directly with the Miskitu, he redesigned the course
to incorporate discussion of traditional Miskitu healing methods.
For more than 100 years, the Miskitu have been influenced by outside
groups attempting to improve their health conditions by introducing
western medicine and designating traditional healing practices
as superstitious and dangerous. Dennis' efforts were among the
first to integrate the teaching of Miskitu with western methods
and actively involve the local healers in the training of certified
health workers.
During his Fulbright grant, the scholar lived in a small village
called Awastara, where, by candlelight, he filled his research
notebooks in preparation for publishing a monograph on Miskitu
medicine. In Awastara, he was accepted as a brother into a Miskitu
family through his close relationship with one of the sons, Victor.
Dennis explains, "A good part of what I have learned about Miskitu
culture is from Victor's large family." Teaching at the university
and spending time in a village as part of the community deepened
Dennis' belief that the Miskitu have just as much to offer the
developed world as it has to offer them. On a personal level,
he states, "I'm sure I will learn as much from them as they will
from me."
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