The socio-cultural context of health behaviour among Esan communities, Edo State, Nigeria.

This paper reports on health beliefs and their influence on treatment decisions and behaviour among the Esan people of mid-west Nigeria. The sources for the study are my own experience of growing up in Esan society, anthropological field work, and focus groups. The research revealed a transitional society where both traditional and modern medicine are employed and where the choice between them is determined by belief systems which are themselves in the process of change, as well as by distance and costs. The traditional health-belief system was one which placed most responsibility and blame upon women, and a system of social control over the adult female population. Changing health beliefs are less the result of the introduction of a new health philosophy than of the retreat, under the impact of Christianity, of traditional religion which embodied the older health philosophy.