ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a view of illness held by Gnau villagers. Recognition of critical illness is in principle held to be private to the individual, not questionable or requiring legitimation or proof in objective physical signs in the clinical sense. The decision that his illness is critical rests with the sick person. The Gnau used a few verbs to differentiate the severity of sickness; they also distinguished sickness of the whole person from that of a part. Apart from the general nature of illness, there is the question of the classification of kinds of illness. The grounds for accepting that disease in modem medicine is conceived in biological and objective terms and lacks any essential social features have been discussed - especially in reference to mental illness and criminal responsibility. The conventions for sick behaviour mask differences in the objective effects of various illnesses and make it hard to assess severity.
