Limits

A programme, organization or activity, or individual and collective human development potential, may be limited either by internal or by external limitation, or by both. Internal limitation may be inherent, constituted by the very nature of human organization and individual and systemic capacities. Thus a primitive society may organize healing functions via ritual, shamanism, witch doctors and other activities; but without real medical knowledge it is nonetheless completely exposed to disease. Internal limitations may also be accidental or circumstantial. It can be said, for example, that inadequate medical services in developing countries can be remedied by training indigenous peoples in medicine, assuming there is no insurmountable intellectual or cultural obstacle to this education. Extrinsic or external limitations may be illustrated by the isolation of a community so that it cannot participate in medical advances. Such a limitation may be presented by natural circumstances. Other external limitations may be imposed by human activity, for example, economic or military subjugation of peoples so that their medical needs are not met.