An EMIC Classification of Women's Illnesses through Pile Sorting Technique

The present ICMR sponsored study describes the use of pile sorting technique to ascertain the way in which women classified their illnesses.

A female anthropologist administered pile sorting technique on 20 literate women (age range 18–41) using a list of 15 common illnesses/symptoms of women wrien on thick cards in bold leers in Hindi which was made on the basis of experience gained during baseline data collection.

Manual analysis of the data revealed that “weakness” as an entity was paired with 12 out of 14 other listed illnesses. Its maximum pairing was with vaginal discharge, (35% respondents) uterine prolapse and scanty menses. Vaginal discharge was also paired with “melting of bones”. Headache and fever was paired most frequently but they were never paired with reproductive symptoms.

Respondents views on women's illnesses are in consonance with Vedic line of thinking. Weakness emerged as the major aetiological denominator for many of reproductive health problems of women.