Middle-Aged and Older Adult Walking and Hiking Groups of Cochrane, Alberta: How Outdoor Group Exercise Influences Perceptions of Health, Healing, and Disease

• Author / Creator

  Steadman, Rodney

• Middle-aged and older adult walking and hiking groups of Cochrane had unique perceptions of health and healing due to their activities, the equipment they used, the environments they explored, and the relationships they developed. Past anthropological research has focused on aging, ethnomedicine, social structures, and the human-environment relationship. My thesis built on these themes by applying them to middle-aged and older adult walking and hiking groups. I used theories associated with ritual, play, and medical anthropology to discuss and interpret my research group’s perceptions of health and healing. I approached my thesis from four theoretical perspectives: walking and hiking experience; walking and hiking culture; play; and perceptions of health and healing. Walking and hiking experiences provided the opportunity for middle-aged and older adults to challenge their traditional notions of the human body and provided them with a space and place to explore alternative health and healing methods to biomedicine.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Health
  • Hiking
  • Healing
  • Walking
  • Diseases
  • Alberta
  • Cochrane

• Graduation date

  Fall 2011

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R34D1M

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.