Hospital as the Microcosm of the Broader Society
This paper is based on an ethnographic study that was conducted in a Bangladeshi hospital. There are very few examples of ethnographies in medical settings from non-Western countries and none from Bangladesh. The research shows that in contrast to the assumed universalism in biomedicine, biomedical practice is in fact a product of particular social conditions, and the hospital in which it takes place reflects the features of the society in which it is embedded. The study revealed how a Bangladeshi hospital is a microcosm of Bangladesh and illustrates the human dimensions of medical practice in a low-income country characterized by daily physical and structural violence. I argue that far from being an island separate from the rest of the society, hospital should be viewed as the capital of the mainland.