Benjamin D. Koen
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195367744
- eISBN:
- 9780199867295
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195367744.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
Western medicine has conventionally separated music, science, and religion into distinct entities, yet traditional cultures throughout the world have always viewed music as a bridge that connects and ...
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Western medicine has conventionally separated music, science, and religion into distinct entities, yet traditional cultures throughout the world have always viewed music as a bridge that connects and balances the physical with the spiritual to promote health and healing. As people in even the most technologically advanced nations across the globe struggle with obtaining affordable and reliable healthcare, more and more people are now turning to these ancient cultural practices of holistic and ICAM healing (integrative, complementary, and alternative medicine). This book convincingly demonstrates the relevance of medical ethnomusicology in light of the globally spreading ICAM approaches to health and healing. Revealing the Western separation of healing from spiritual and musical practices as a culturally determined phenomenon, the book confirms their underlying unity. In a place poetically known as the Roof of the World, the culture found within the towering Pamir Mountains of Badakhshan Tajikistan serves as the paradigm of ICAM healing practices. The book’s research and immersion into the Badakhshani culture provides a well-balanced “insider” perspective while maintaining an “observer’s” view, as it effectively bridges the widespread gaps between ethnomusicology, health science, and music therapy.Less
Western medicine has conventionally separated music, science, and religion into distinct entities, yet traditional cultures throughout the world have always viewed music as a bridge that connects and balances the physical with the spiritual to promote health and healing. As people in even the most technologically advanced nations across the globe struggle with obtaining affordable and reliable healthcare, more and more people are now turning to these ancient cultural practices of holistic and ICAM healing (integrative, complementary, and alternative medicine). This book convincingly demonstrates the relevance of medical ethnomusicology in light of the globally spreading ICAM approaches to health and healing. Revealing the Western separation of healing from spiritual and musical practices as a culturally determined phenomenon, the book confirms their underlying unity. In a place poetically known as the Roof of the World, the culture found within the towering Pamir Mountains of Badakhshan Tajikistan serves as the paradigm of ICAM healing practices. The book’s research and immersion into the Badakhshani culture provides a well-balanced “insider” perspective while maintaining an “observer’s” view, as it effectively bridges the widespread gaps between ethnomusicology, health science, and music therapy.
Arthur Kleinman
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520209657
- eISBN:
- 9780520919471
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520209657.003.0009
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
This chapter aims to survey the present phase of medical anthropology through a close reading of recent ethnographies that represent the different approaches to the field, and tries to understand why ...
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This chapter aims to survey the present phase of medical anthropology through a close reading of recent ethnographies that represent the different approaches to the field, and tries to understand why ethnographies are effective within the area of health and healing. It also studies the process of contributing in the scholarly engagement with the literature, which it considers an important intersubjective practice of participating in the building of an academic field. Ideas such as medicine as a social idiom and medical ethnography are introduced.Less
This chapter aims to survey the present phase of medical anthropology through a close reading of recent ethnographies that represent the different approaches to the field, and tries to understand why ethnographies are effective within the area of health and healing. It also studies the process of contributing in the scholarly engagement with the literature, which it considers an important intersubjective practice of participating in the building of an academic field. Ideas such as medicine as a social idiom and medical ethnography are introduced.
