Cultural Anthropology: Article 2Ethnography is a research method used to explore different cultures from a personal perspective. Many anthropologists have sought to use ethnography as their primary method of study because of its specificity and the possibility of using it. Those who participate in ethnographies are expected to accurately record detailed accounts of the society in which they live, while maintaining critical distance. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall is an ethnography written by Anne Fadiman. The first chapter of the book introduces readers to the cultural conflict between American doctors and the Hmong by detailing aspects of birth in both cultures. The focus is on how the Hmong handle the placenta and their baby's naming ceremony. Many details behind Hmong culture arise and this naturally leads to conflict. Baby Lia begins to develop epilepsy and her parents view this as a symbol of divinity while the doctors at the nearby hospital, MERCED, view it only as an illness. While doctors continue to try to prescribe medications to reduce the number of seizures, parents continue to reject them. They believed the Spivey 2 drugs were the cause of the seizures, not the cure. Parents were frustrated, as were doctors. Very frustrated by the parents' refusal to provide medication to their child, Dr. Ernst called the CPA and Lia was removed from her parents' care. She showed no improvement in foster care and it was obvious that her progress was nowhere near where it should have been. The crises have not stopped, they have even increased. Fortunately, a hospital in Turlock was able to get her back to a stable point allowing her to return home. This opened Lia to a variety of unknowns...... middle of paper ...... considered the infant's first and most beautiful item of clothing. The Hmong buried the placenta outside, face up, because they believe that after death, the soul returns to the placenta to be reborn. In American culture, the placenta is not considered a special part of the labor process, nor associated with a soul, and it is immediately discarded. However, the umbilical cord is considered symbolic and is kept by many people after the birth of their child. In The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, many MERCED doctors were aware of this Hmong tradition and provided a bag containing the placenta immediately after birth. Many ethnographies like Anne Fadiman's have helped people from other cultures learn about how other societies function. The goal of ethnographies is to give true and real accounts of other cultures and that is what Fadiman did..