Study of Health-seeking Behavior Towards the Practice of Sangkal Putung for Bone Fracture and the Making of Medical Discrimination in Cikendung Village, Pemalang Regency, Central Java - Indonesia

The practice of Sangkal Putung is a popular traditional medicine for bone fracture among Cikendung Villagers. Its popularity cannot be defeated yet with the existence of easy-accessible Rumah Sakit Pusat Kesehatan Umum (RS PKU) Muhammadiyah, a modern hospital which is believed to have better approach for curing bone fracture with advanced development in orthopedic surgery and radiology than its traditional counterpart. The study of such health-seeking behavior through the analysis of semantic network and factors that influences will lead to the analytical explanation on why Cikendung Villagers prefer the practice of Sangkal Putung than go to the nearest hospital and its implication for the make of a new category of discrimination called medical discrimination. The method of phenomenology is used to analyze the linkages of the empirical data that has been gathered for two weeks and the relevancy of semantic networks among Cikendung Villagers which implies to the experience of discrimination. Cultural aspect that comes from semantic network has been given big role to form villager's preferences towards the cure of bone fracture by weighing the hospitality that modern medicine practice lacks which comes indirectly from globalization and its implication that gives a massive impact not for Cikendung Villagers alone but today's twenty first century Southeast Asian societies.     Keywords: Health-seeking behavior, Medical discrimination, Phenomenology, Poverty, Sangkal Putun