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Currently, surgeons feel disillusioned. This is partly due to their cultural identity patterns getting confused, particularly in public hospitals. In spite of an overall belittled socio-professional status from the 15th to the 18th century, the phenomenological characteristics of surgical practice has given to these craftsmen a feeling of omnipotence and a taste for miracle which are not necessarily linked with their skills or the state of art at their own time. At the very beginning of her fieldwork, the author has been at first faced up with power matters. The topic here is the tangled web of mental pictures and behaviours typical of this corporate body, which from now on is wondering about its fate.

Keywords: Pouchelle, chirurgiens, pouvoir, miracle, nouvelles technologies, modèles identitaires, crise, Pouchelle, Surgeons, Power, Miracle, New Technologies, Cultural Identity Patterns, Crisis, Pouchelle, cirujanos, poder, milagro, novedades tecnológicas, modelos identitarios, crisis

In 1911 Albert Laurendeau (1857-1920), a medical doctor in Saint-Gabriel-de-Brandon, published a book entitled La vie : considérations biologiques in which he advanced and defended a Lamarckian version of evolution and criticized French Canadian educational institutions for failing to teach up-to-date scientific knowledge. Previous to the publication of this work, he had already come into conflict with Msgr Joseph-Alfred Archambault (1859-1913), the Bishop of Joliette, over his seemingly modernist attempt to separate science from religion and may even have anticipated the bishops reaction to the book: condemnation and a demand for complete submission by the doctor. Laurendeau resisted for a few months, but then submitted. Seven years later, after the bishops death, Laurendeau epeated his views without penalty. This incident is significant for an understanding of the relationship between science and religion in early-twentieth-century Quebec.

Life and death are closely linked in health care settings where questions regarding the quality of life and death, the pursuit (or not) of disease directed treatments and the legitimacy of those who make these decisions shape these crucial moments. As therapeutic possibilities seem never-ending, when to stop or when to embrace a palliative perspective is a complex issue. The boundaries between the social categorizations that separate the curable from the incurable, the sick from the dying and impending of death are often uncertain. Grounded in two ethnographic studies, one conducted in a pediatric hospital setting (hematology-oncology unit-bone marrow transplant) and the other with elderly people in a hospital setting as well as a long-term care facility in Montreal, the authors discuss the diversity of end-of-life trajectories. When can we stop? Who can answer? These questions are recurrent without being new. They are, however, the daily reality of “major illness.” The authors draw upon the notions of “care” and the “duty of non-abandonment” in their quest of answers while questioning the contemporary status of (bio)medicine.

Keywords: Fortin, Lessard, prise de décision, fin de vie, hémato-oncologie pédiatrique, gériatrie, trajectoires, Fortin, Lessard, decision-making, end-of-life, pediatric hemato-oncology, geriatrics, trajectories, Fortin, Lessard, toma de decisiones, fin de la vida, hemato-oncologia pediátrica, geriatría, trayectorias

The research in this article supports the postulate that the confrontation actors have with practical choice favours the observation of attitudes and their associated representations. Thus, the practical choice Québecers have with regard to diverse therapentic options delimits the field of observation. Likewise, the cleavage between "scientific medicine" and "alternative medecine" is used to analyze present day behaviour, attitudes and representation, in other words, a cognitive journey through which one has a glimpse into knowledge, particularly scientific knowledge.

Keywords: PROFESSIONS, ARCHITECTURE, MÉDECINE, ENGAGEMENT, THÉORIE SOCIOLOGIQUE

While European medical intervention in Gabon is not unknown to the general public, it is inevitably the figure of the renowned Dr. Schweitzer and his hospital in Lambaréné that comes to mind. This article seeks to shift the focus by examining the healthcare work carried out by women within Catholic and Protestant missions up until the interwar period. Through a cross-analysis of colonial and missionary archives, this study explores how medical activities were embedded within frameworks of religious and gendered authority. It aims to uncover the spaces of freedom that healthcare work afforded Christian nurses, while also probing the internal power struggles that inevitably played out over the populations treated in the dispensaries. In doing so, the voices of patients must be brought to light to accurately reflect the diversity of African responses to these Western medical practices.

AbstractABSTRACTWomen, Domestic Care, and Therapeutic SpaceDomestic care are an essential part of the ethnomedical Systems and women, in most societies and probably ail of them, develop, use, and transmit thoses practices and the associated knowledge. During the years 1930-1960 in the Quebec francophone society, domestic care were the main therapeutic resource, among ail other possible practices, including the medical and the religious spheres. This article deals with the sphere of domestic care during this period as the key feature of the therapeutic arena, and basis of the therapeutic management. Gender and household should be introduced and articulated as key concepts to reformulate the concept of therapeutic management On the theoretical level, the hypothesis puts emphasis on the systematic articulation of the public and private spheres to analyse the whole therapeutic arena in various ethnomedical Systems.Key words : Saillant, care, ethnomedicine, domestic life, anthropological medicine, Quebec

This article examines the impact of contemporary organizational and cultural transformations on the professional identity of family physicians in Quebec. It aims to describe, based on an analysis of three cohorts of physicians entering the Quebec labour market, new ways of relating to work that are contributing to redefining the professional identity of family physicians. In order to understand changes in values regarding work and the medical profession, this study takes a critical stance toward generational explanatory models. Rather, it looks to other factors for improving our understanding of the evolution of professional identities, in particular the conditions of practice, structural gender rigidities, and changes in values and in personal and family situations.

Keywords: rapport de travail, médecins de famille, identité professionnelle, parcours de vie, relationship to work, family physicians, professional identity, life trajectory