Culture of Health Seeking Behaviour: A Medical Anthropological Study on the Drukpas of Buxa Duar Region of West Bengal, India

The book entitled ‘culture of health seeking behaviour’ explores the process of searching and availing the health care services prevalent in a culture and it also examines the subsequent transformation in virtue of modernization. Explanatory model of an individual belonging to a specific culture plays a determining role for choosing appropriate health seeking behavior. The said behavior is actually a decision making process governed by an individual of a particular culture. Every culture has its own dimension of health care system and it is characterized with self-sufficient until it experiences inevitable interaction with the outer world. There is a consensus agreement that the health status of the tribal population is very poor specifically whenever they have been exposed and interacted with other complex culture. The present study has been conducted among the Drukpa’s of Buxa-Duar region and the prime objective of the study is to understand the health seeking behavior of that particular tribal community inhabited in West Bengal, India. This is perhaps the first endeavour that any sort of in-depth anthropological query has been carried out among the Drukpas with special reference to care seeking behavior under the domain of distinctive sub-discipline known as medical anthropology. The study also identifies a unique cultural periphery of adequate resemblance with the neighbouring country Bhutan.