The thesis focuses on changing medical beliefs and practices in Bani Ghazl, a village of 631 inhabitants in the ~ugariyya district of North Yemen. The analysis of medicine is first placed in a broad ethnographic context, with a presentation of the economic and political experience of the Hugariyya in this century. The medical data suggest that traditionally, great emphasis was put on personal responsibility for the prevention of illness and promotion of health. This orientation remains but is supplemented by simultaneous use of western medicine, which does not emphasize personal responsibility but rather reliance on the extra-household cures of specialists. That one set of symptoms can have many explanations in the community is discussed. Finally, the influence of a new economic and religious elite on village medical practice is discussed.