Graduation Year

2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.A.

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Degree Granting Department

Anthropology

Major Professor

Daniel Lende, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Antoinette Jackson, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Bronywyn (Bonnie) Kaiser, Ph.D., MPH

Committee Member

Raina Croff, Ph.D.

Keywords

culture, dementia, Haitian immigrants, idioms of distress, medical anthropology, Montreal Cognitive Assessment

Abstract

This thesis investigates how first-generation Haitian immigrants in the United States understand and interpret dementia within the intersecting contexts of culture, migration, and biomedicine. While dementia is constructed as a pathological “loss of self” and a public health epidemic, in American biomedical and popular discourse, this study examines how Haitian-born individuals—socialized within a non-Western cultural and spiritual framework—make sense of cognitive decline and impairment in ways that diverge from Western biomedical narratives. Guided by theoretical orientations from medical anthropology, including Mark Nichter’s idioms of distress, Margaret Lock’s local biologies, and neuroanthropology, this research explores how cultural models of illness, aging, and the body shape Haitian immigrants’ perceptions of dementia. Using qualitative methods, including semi-structured interviews, and engagement with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), the study centers the experiences of late-aged Haitian immigrants residing in the United States. Findings reveal that participants often describe memory loss and cognitive changes through idioms emphasizing imbalance, disconnection, or interpersonal disturbance rather than neurodegeneration. Health and illness were understood as reflections of harmony or disharmony between the physical, social, and spiritual realms by Haitian people. In regard to the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), participants expressed unfamiliarity with the MoCA, revealing that the assessment may be culturally incongruent and limited in capturing the full range of cognitive and social competence valued in Haitian contexts. This study highlights the incongruence between biomedical and Haitian cultural constructions of dementia, and between Western and Haitian perceptions of aging. Findings from the study also underscore the need for more culturally responsive approaches to cognitive assessment and elder care. By situating Haitian immigrants’ interpretations of dementia as acts of cultural continuity and adaptation, this research contributes to broader anthropological and gerontological scholarship on how migration, culture, and medicine shape experiences of aging and illness across transnational settings.

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