ABSTRACT
This chapter draws upon ethnographic data to demonstrate how arsenicosis is socially constructed within the broader framework of health and illness beliefs and practices in rural Bangladesh. It explores the two issues: how arsenicosis is explained using existing local terminologies and disease etiologies; and perhaps preeminently, how such social construction of ghaa departs from the biomedical and official explanations of arsenicosis. Blaxter explained health as "physical fitness", meaning that good health is perceived as long as the body is found fit for work. In medical anthropology, food and foodways are of major interest given their significance in understanding and explaining health and illness. In rural Bangladesh ghaais literally belongs to a general category of skin disease. Villagers use a binary classification to explain the differences between arsenicosis ghaa and other skin diseases. Additionally, Indian women's long stay in smoky kitchens often culminates in different illnesses, including respiratory disorders such as bronchitis, pneumonia, tuberculosis and asthma.
