explaining high blood pressure: variation in knowledge about illness

This paper examines variation and consensus in knowledge about high blood pressure in an Ojibway Indian community in Manitoba, Canada. Data was collected from 26 individuals, diagnosed as hypertensive, using both open‐ended and true‐false question interview formats. A formal analysis of the true‐false questions provided support for a shared cultural model for knowledge about high blood pressure. A prototypical model is developed using data from both interviews and the nature of variation both within and outside this model explored. [cognitive anthropology, medical anthropology, intracultural variation, knowledge systems, Ojibway Indians]