Richard S. Weiss
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195335231
- eISBN:
- 9780199868803
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195335231.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
This chapter considers the largest social compass that siddha practitioners have claimed as their own—that of Indian traditional doctors. In opposition to British medical imperialism and later ...
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This chapter considers the largest social compass that siddha practitioners have claimed as their own—that of Indian traditional doctors. In opposition to British medical imperialism and later Western biomedicine supported by the Indian state, siddha doctors have joined forces with practitioners of the other two major traditional medical systems in India, ayurveda and unani, to argue for the inadequacy of Western biomedicine in healing Indian bodies. They have formulated an autonomous space of Indian medical practice and knowledge, ascribing a radical uniqueness and relativism to their knowledge that renders it immune to the critiques of biomedicine.Less
This chapter considers the largest social compass that siddha practitioners have claimed as their own—that of Indian traditional doctors. In opposition to British medical imperialism and later Western biomedicine supported by the Indian state, siddha doctors have joined forces with practitioners of the other two major traditional medical systems in India, ayurveda and unani, to argue for the inadequacy of Western biomedicine in healing Indian bodies. They have formulated an autonomous space of Indian medical practice and knowledge, ascribing a radical uniqueness and relativism to their knowledge that renders it immune to the critiques of biomedicine.
Richard S Weiss
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195335231
- eISBN:
- 9780199868803
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195335231.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
This book illuminates the present success of traditional doctors by examining the ways that siddha medical practitioners in Tamil south India have won the trust and patronage of patients. While ...
More
This book illuminates the present success of traditional doctors by examining the ways that siddha medical practitioners in Tamil south India have won the trust and patronage of patients. While biomedicine might alleviate a patient’s physical distress, siddha doctors offer their clientele much more: affiliation to a timeless and pure community, the fantasy of a Tamil utopia, and even the prospect of immortality. They speak of a golden age of Tamil civilization and of traditional medicine, drawing on broader revivalist formulations of a pure and ancient Tamil community. This work illuminates the lives, vocations, and aspirations of these traditional doctors, documenting the challenges they face in the modern world. It demonstrates that medical authority is based not only on physical effectiveness, but also on imaginative processes that relate to personal and social identities; conceptions of history, secrecy, and loss; and utopian promise. Drawing from ethnographic data; premodern Tamil texts on medicine, alchemy, and yoga; government archival resources; college textbooks; and popular literature on siddha medicine and on the siddhar yogis, this book presents a study of a traditional system of knowledge that serves the medical needs of millions of Indians. It is more than a local study, however, analyzing the political and religious dimensions of medical discourse and authority in our modern world.Less
This book illuminates the present success of traditional doctors by examining the ways that siddha medical practitioners in Tamil south India have won the trust and patronage of patients. While biomedicine might alleviate a patient’s physical distress, siddha doctors offer their clientele much more: affiliation to a timeless and pure community, the fantasy of a Tamil utopia, and even the prospect of immortality. They speak of a golden age of Tamil civilization and of traditional medicine, drawing on broader revivalist formulations of a pure and ancient Tamil community. This work illuminates the lives, vocations, and aspirations of these traditional doctors, documenting the challenges they face in the modern world. It demonstrates that medical authority is based not only on physical effectiveness, but also on imaginative processes that relate to personal and social identities; conceptions of history, secrecy, and loss; and utopian promise. Drawing from ethnographic data; premodern Tamil texts on medicine, alchemy, and yoga; government archival resources; college textbooks; and popular literature on siddha medicine and on the siddhar yogis, this book presents a study of a traditional system of knowledge that serves the medical needs of millions of Indians. It is more than a local study, however, analyzing the political and religious dimensions of medical discourse and authority in our modern world.
Richard S. Weiss
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195335231
- eISBN:
- 9780199868803
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195335231.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
This chapter begins by asking: How have contemporary traditional siddha medical practitioners in south India continued to win patronage for their practices? The answer lies not only in the physical ...
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This chapter begins by asking: How have contemporary traditional siddha medical practitioners in south India continued to win patronage for their practices? The answer lies not only in the physical efficacy of specific siddha medical practices, but just as importantly in the imaginative resources practitioners employ to appeal to the hopes and aspirations of Tamils. The chapter pays particular attention to siddha medicine as a traditional medical system. That is, it focuses on the aspects of siddha discourse that link medical knowledge and practice to an ancient community, and it puts forth a theoretical framework in which to examine the impact of this medical discourse on local Tamil identity and community.Less
This chapter begins by asking: How have contemporary traditional siddha medical practitioners in south India continued to win patronage for their practices? The answer lies not only in the physical efficacy of specific siddha medical practices, but just as importantly in the imaginative resources practitioners employ to appeal to the hopes and aspirations of Tamils. The chapter pays particular attention to siddha medicine as a traditional medical system. That is, it focuses on the aspects of siddha discourse that link medical knowledge and practice to an ancient community, and it puts forth a theoretical framework in which to examine the impact of this medical discourse on local Tamil identity and community.
Richard S. Weiss
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195335231
- eISBN:
- 9780199868803
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195335231.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
This final chapter gives recipes for two siddha medicines, one that is said to have the potential to restore youth and cure all diseases. It then discusses two general features of siddha medical ...
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This final chapter gives recipes for two siddha medicines, one that is said to have the potential to restore youth and cure all diseases. It then discusses two general features of siddha medical discourse. The first is the ambiguous and often ambivalent relationship between science and religion in siddha medical rhetoric. In promoting their medicine, siddha practitioners often join physics and metaphysics, the banal and the extraordinary, in order to ascribe authority to the manifest world of Tamil society and material culture. The chapter then discusses the globalizing aspirations of siddha medicine, arguing that for the time being, siddha vaidyas continue to focus their commercial efforts on local, Tamil audiences.Less
This final chapter gives recipes for two siddha medicines, one that is said to have the potential to restore youth and cure all diseases. It then discusses two general features of siddha medical discourse. The first is the ambiguous and often ambivalent relationship between science and religion in siddha medical rhetoric. In promoting their medicine, siddha practitioners often join physics and metaphysics, the banal and the extraordinary, in order to ascribe authority to the manifest world of Tamil society and material culture. The chapter then discusses the globalizing aspirations of siddha medicine, arguing that for the time being, siddha vaidyas continue to focus their commercial efforts on local, Tamil audiences.
Marjorie Topley
Jean DeBernardi (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789888028146
- eISBN:
- 9789882206663
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888028146.003.0021
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
The position of Chinese medicine in Hong Kong and the problems of official recognition are complex. This book discovered in follow-up interviews that specialists sometimes combine medical treatment ...
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The position of Chinese medicine in Hong Kong and the problems of official recognition are complex. This book discovered in follow-up interviews that specialists sometimes combine medical treatment with ritual treatments; that not all traditional doctors would assert that ritual treatment was without value, although none regarded ritual as their own province; and that some modern Chinese doctors would not say there was nothing in Chinese traditional medicine. One physician used a combination of Chinese and modern medicine in his practice, and a few thought ritual, although not a true method of cure, might have value for certain kinds of patients. This chapter was prompted largely by these discoveries. The data obtained in 1969 have been augmented with information from additional specialists. It does not generalize for the whole of Hong Kong. Dialect differences often go with other sub-cultural differences, and it is possible that some things, particularly concerning ritual practices, have no relevance to other groups.Less
The position of Chinese medicine in Hong Kong and the problems of official recognition are complex. This book discovered in follow-up interviews that specialists sometimes combine medical treatment with ritual treatments; that not all traditional doctors would assert that ritual treatment was without value, although none regarded ritual as their own province; and that some modern Chinese doctors would not say there was nothing in Chinese traditional medicine. One physician used a combination of Chinese and modern medicine in his practice, and a few thought ritual, although not a true method of cure, might have value for certain kinds of patients. This chapter was prompted largely by these discoveries. The data obtained in 1969 have been augmented with information from additional specialists. It does not generalize for the whole of Hong Kong. Dialect differences often go with other sub-cultural differences, and it is possible that some things, particularly concerning ritual practices, have no relevance to other groups.
David Ownby
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195329056
- eISBN:
- 9780199870240
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195329056.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This chapter traces the invention and evolution of qigong, the larger movement out of which Falun Gong emerged in 1992. Qigong was created as part of a nativist Chinese reaction to the importation of ...
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This chapter traces the invention and evolution of qigong, the larger movement out of which Falun Gong emerged in 1992. Qigong was created as part of a nativist Chinese reaction to the importation of Western biomedicine in the 1950s, with the goal of protecting and preserving traditional Chinese healing practices—often linked in imperial times to religious and spiritual beliefs. Qigong functioned on a small scale within specialized clinics and sanatoriums linked to Traditional Chinese Medicine in the 1950s and early 1960s, but was severely criticized as “feudal superstition” during the Cultural Revolution and thus largely disappeared. Qigong re‐emerged in the mid‐1970s in the public parks of Beijing, taught by independent masters who had healed themselves and promised to heal others. When qi was “proven” by Chinese researchers to have a scientific existence in the late 1970s, Chinese authorities gave their approval to qigong, thus paving the way for the qigong boom. Qigong superstars such as Yan Xin and Zhang Hongbao became national celebrities and attracted millions of followers in the first popularly led mass movement in China since 1949.Less
This chapter traces the invention and evolution of qigong, the larger movement out of which Falun Gong emerged in 1992. Qigong was created as part of a nativist Chinese reaction to the importation of Western biomedicine in the 1950s, with the goal of protecting and preserving traditional Chinese healing practices—often linked in imperial times to religious and spiritual beliefs. Qigong functioned on a small scale within specialized clinics and sanatoriums linked to Traditional Chinese Medicine in the 1950s and early 1960s, but was severely criticized as “feudal superstition” during the Cultural Revolution and thus largely disappeared. Qigong re‐emerged in the mid‐1970s in the public parks of Beijing, taught by independent masters who had healed themselves and promised to heal others. When qi was “proven” by Chinese researchers to have a scientific existence in the late 1970s, Chinese authorities gave their approval to qigong, thus paving the way for the qigong boom. Qigong superstars such as Yan Xin and Zhang Hongbao became national celebrities and attracted millions of followers in the first popularly led mass movement in China since 1949.
Marc A. Rodwin
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199755486
- eISBN:
- 9780199894918
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199755486.003.0009
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
This chapter traces the history of Japan's medical political economy. Contemporary conflicts of interest have roots in traditional Chinese medicine. Practice was transformed when the state adopted ...
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This chapter traces the history of Japan's medical political economy. Contemporary conflicts of interest have roots in traditional Chinese medicine. Practice was transformed when the state adopted Western medicine in the late 19th century, by struggles over social welfare at the turn of the 20th century, by state control over medicine and insurance during World War II, and by reforms instituted during postwar reconstruction. As these changes occurred, organized medicine shaped the medical political economy to protect entrepreneurial private practice.Less
This chapter traces the history of Japan's medical political economy. Contemporary conflicts of interest have roots in traditional Chinese medicine. Practice was transformed when the state adopted Western medicine in the late 19th century, by struggles over social welfare at the turn of the 20th century, by state control over medicine and insurance during World War II, and by reforms instituted during postwar reconstruction. As these changes occurred, organized medicine shaped the medical political economy to protect entrepreneurial private practice.
Paul Unschuld
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520257658
- eISBN:
- 9780520944701
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520257658.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
This book is a comparative history of two millennia of Western and Chinese medicine from their beginnings in the centuries bce through present advances in sciences such as molecular biology and in ...
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This book is a comparative history of two millennia of Western and Chinese medicine from their beginnings in the centuries bce through present advances in sciences such as molecular biology and in Western adaptations of traditional Chinese medicine. In this interpretation of the basic forces that undergird shifts in medical theory, the book relates the history of medicine in both Europe and China to changes in politics, economics, and other contextual factors. Drawing on extended research of Chinese primary sources as well as scholarship in European medical history, this book argues against any claims of “truth” in former and current, Eastern and Western models of physiology and pathology. The book contributes to discussions on health care policies while illuminating the nature of cognitive dynamics in medicine, and stimulates fresh debate on the essence and interpretation of reality in medicine's attempts to manage the human organism.Less
This book is a comparative history of two millennia of Western and Chinese medicine from their beginnings in the centuries bce through present advances in sciences such as molecular biology and in Western adaptations of traditional Chinese medicine. In this interpretation of the basic forces that undergird shifts in medical theory, the book relates the history of medicine in both Europe and China to changes in politics, economics, and other contextual factors. Drawing on extended research of Chinese primary sources as well as scholarship in European medical history, this book argues against any claims of “truth” in former and current, Eastern and Western models of physiology and pathology. The book contributes to discussions on health care policies while illuminating the nature of cognitive dynamics in medicine, and stimulates fresh debate on the essence and interpretation of reality in medicine's attempts to manage the human organism.
Paul U. Unschuld
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520257658
- eISBN:
- 9780520944701
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520257658.003.0060
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
This chapter studies the observers from China who expressed that they could gain insight in the interior of the human without opening the body. They found the answer instead of in the body, in old ...
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This chapter studies the observers from China who expressed that they could gain insight in the interior of the human without opening the body. They found the answer instead of in the body, in old texts, where some things were written about the organs that they thought had to be interpreted correctly. The Chinese diagrams of the interior of the body were not that bad. They were based on models from the twelfth to fifteenth century. Everything could be seen in the diagrams such as the lungs at the top, the heart underneath, then the spleen. On the side there were the gall bladder, the liver and even deeper there were the small intestine, large intestine, kidneys, and so on. All the organs that were described in the texts of antiquity were visible in these diagrams. Intra-abdominal abscesses have nothing in common with “Traditional Chinese Medicine.” In the late twentieth century, “Traditional Chinese Medicine” was discussed in many Western countries.Less
This chapter studies the observers from China who expressed that they could gain insight in the interior of the human without opening the body. They found the answer instead of in the body, in old texts, where some things were written about the organs that they thought had to be interpreted correctly. The Chinese diagrams of the interior of the body were not that bad. They were based on models from the twelfth to fifteenth century. Everything could be seen in the diagrams such as the lungs at the top, the heart underneath, then the spleen. On the side there were the gall bladder, the liver and even deeper there were the small intestine, large intestine, kidneys, and so on. All the organs that were described in the texts of antiquity were visible in these diagrams. Intra-abdominal abscesses have nothing in common with “Traditional Chinese Medicine.” In the late twentieth century, “Traditional Chinese Medicine” was discussed in many Western countries.
Paul U. Unschuld
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520257658
- eISBN:
- 9780520944701
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520257658.003.0085
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
The plausibility of old Greek medicine had paled following the end of the Roman Empire in the Early Middle Ages. The Arabs emerged from the desert and were introduced to what the Christian West no ...
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The plausibility of old Greek medicine had paled following the end of the Roman Empire in the Early Middle Ages. The Arabs emerged from the desert and were introduced to what the Christian West no longer wanted. This knowledge was foreign to the Arabs and seemed incomprehensibly superior to their own healing practices. The European and American Arabs had arrived. With incredible astonishment, they learned about needle treatments, herbal knowledge, and summaries of the doctrines. Soon, the “Abus” and “Ibns” of Europe and North America emerged. From the thin booklets, books of many hundred pages were written and key words were flourished like banners before the eyes of the surprised masses. A similar process is now being witnessed. In China, traditional medicine is now officially only valid in playpen format. It was intended for temporary use and what the Chinese had not expected was crowding in the playpen.Less
The plausibility of old Greek medicine had paled following the end of the Roman Empire in the Early Middle Ages. The Arabs emerged from the desert and were introduced to what the Christian West no longer wanted. This knowledge was foreign to the Arabs and seemed incomprehensibly superior to their own healing practices. The European and American Arabs had arrived. With incredible astonishment, they learned about needle treatments, herbal knowledge, and summaries of the doctrines. Soon, the “Abus” and “Ibns” of Europe and North America emerged. From the thin booklets, books of many hundred pages were written and key words were flourished like banners before the eyes of the surprised masses. A similar process is now being witnessed. In China, traditional medicine is now officially only valid in playpen format. It was intended for temporary use and what the Chinese had not expected was crowding in the playpen.
Paul U. Unschuld
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520257658
- eISBN:
- 9780520944701
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520257658.003.0091
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
Modern medicine uses technology, even nuclear technology, in diagnosis and therapy. But not only this, technology comes between physician and patient. In diagnosis, the patient is examined by ...
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Modern medicine uses technology, even nuclear technology, in diagnosis and therapy. But not only this, technology comes between physician and patient. In diagnosis, the patient is examined by technology, perhaps even left alone in a computer tomograph. Test results are transmitted to invisible technologists and physicians via monitors. This is a tremendous advance in the treatment of the sick, but, nevertheless, it is frightening to some. People miss having a person to help them deal with their problems. They miss having a physician who personally examines, palpates, talks to them, treats them with his or her hands, and considers their personal fate. The image of high-tech medicine overlaid the successes of this medicine, creating fears that have pushed people to seek alternatives. The traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is such an alternative; for example, acupuncture promised that no technology would come between physician and patient.Less
Modern medicine uses technology, even nuclear technology, in diagnosis and therapy. But not only this, technology comes between physician and patient. In diagnosis, the patient is examined by technology, perhaps even left alone in a computer tomograph. Test results are transmitted to invisible technologists and physicians via monitors. This is a tremendous advance in the treatment of the sick, but, nevertheless, it is frightening to some. People miss having a person to help them deal with their problems. They miss having a physician who personally examines, palpates, talks to them, treats them with his or her hands, and considers their personal fate. The image of high-tech medicine overlaid the successes of this medicine, creating fears that have pushed people to seek alternatives. The traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is such an alternative; for example, acupuncture promised that no technology would come between physician and patient.
Heather Bell
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198207498
- eISBN:
- 9780191677694
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207498.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Training Sudanese midwives and supervising all midwifery practice constituted a distinctive enterprise for the Sudan medical service. The Midwifery Training School, opened in Omdurman in 1921, ...
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Training Sudanese midwives and supervising all midwifery practice constituted a distinctive enterprise for the Sudan medical service. The Midwifery Training School, opened in Omdurman in 1921, recognized practitioners of traditional medicine as agents who could be reformed: it sought to create a class of modern, trained Sudanese midwives, out of, and in rivalry to, an entrenched class of traditional midwives known as dayas. Such a transformation required constant and explicit engagement with Sudanese people, and their cultural norms about gender roles and intimate practices such as childbirth and female circumcision. This chapter argues that the interaction between traditional and Western medicine, and between Sudanese and British cultures engendered by midwifery training and practice in the colonial context, was highly complex and constantly being negotiated. It shows that hierarchies of gender, race, occupation, and class disciplined the medical service's employment of non-European personnel. In addressing the government's handling of the controversial matter of female circumcision, the chapter also provides evidence of the rigid boundary sometimes drawn between medicine and politics in Sudan.Less
Training Sudanese midwives and supervising all midwifery practice constituted a distinctive enterprise for the Sudan medical service. The Midwifery Training School, opened in Omdurman in 1921, recognized practitioners of traditional medicine as agents who could be reformed: it sought to create a class of modern, trained Sudanese midwives, out of, and in rivalry to, an entrenched class of traditional midwives known as dayas. Such a transformation required constant and explicit engagement with Sudanese people, and their cultural norms about gender roles and intimate practices such as childbirth and female circumcision. This chapter argues that the interaction between traditional and Western medicine, and between Sudanese and British cultures engendered by midwifery training and practice in the colonial context, was highly complex and constantly being negotiated. It shows that hierarchies of gender, race, occupation, and class disciplined the medical service's employment of non-European personnel. In addressing the government's handling of the controversial matter of female circumcision, the chapter also provides evidence of the rigid boundary sometimes drawn between medicine and politics in Sudan.
Paul U. Unschuld
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520257658
- eISBN:
- 9780520944701
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520257658.003.0087
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
This chapter addresses the question of how the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) affected the citizens of industrialized Western nations. TCM has proved to be promising for the minds and bodies of ...
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This chapter addresses the question of how the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) affected the citizens of industrialized Western nations. TCM has proved to be promising for the minds and bodies of the Western nations. In the beginning there was the Word. The Word possesses plausibility and persuasiveness because it mirrors experiences and visions. It mirrors the real or ideal structures that humans live in or would like to live in. It also mirrors existential fears, and the supposedly appropriate strategies for overcoming those fears. Starting in the 1970s, the entire Western world had common experiences and visions, real and ideal structures, as well as fears and corresponding strategies, but its medicine was no longer appropriate for them. As a result, the experiences and visions of the Chinese and Greek traditional medicine were funneled into completely new arenas of healing.Less
This chapter addresses the question of how the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) affected the citizens of industrialized Western nations. TCM has proved to be promising for the minds and bodies of the Western nations. In the beginning there was the Word. The Word possesses plausibility and persuasiveness because it mirrors experiences and visions. It mirrors the real or ideal structures that humans live in or would like to live in. It also mirrors existential fears, and the supposedly appropriate strategies for overcoming those fears. Starting in the 1970s, the entire Western world had common experiences and visions, real and ideal structures, as well as fears and corresponding strategies, but its medicine was no longer appropriate for them. As a result, the experiences and visions of the Chinese and Greek traditional medicine were funneled into completely new arenas of healing.
Paul U. Unschuld
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520257658
- eISBN:
- 9780520944701
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520257658.003.0092
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
This chapter examines how traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has affected people of the Western nations. Modern medicine missed the belief in the life force. The effect of TCM on Western nations has ...
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This chapter examines how traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has affected people of the Western nations. Modern medicine missed the belief in the life force. The effect of TCM on Western nations has been promising. The citizens of the Western nations were troubled by several fears. One of the central, most profound fear-provoking experiences of the 1970s to 1990s was the energy crisis. Parallel to the gradual rapprochement of East and West, it replaced the fear of nuclear war. The energy crisis led to wars in distant lands. TCM came as a reassuring factor to these nations as it was taken as someone who finally paid attention to energy, life energy, or a healing dedicated to energy. It reassured that even if the conflicts over energy cannot be solved in distant lands, they could at least be solved in one's own body. This represents a start, with a likely bright future.Less
This chapter examines how traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has affected people of the Western nations. Modern medicine missed the belief in the life force. The effect of TCM on Western nations has been promising. The citizens of the Western nations were troubled by several fears. One of the central, most profound fear-provoking experiences of the 1970s to 1990s was the energy crisis. Parallel to the gradual rapprochement of East and West, it replaced the fear of nuclear war. The energy crisis led to wars in distant lands. TCM came as a reassuring factor to these nations as it was taken as someone who finally paid attention to energy, life energy, or a healing dedicated to energy. It reassured that even if the conflicts over energy cannot be solved in distant lands, they could at least be solved in one's own body. This represents a start, with a likely bright future.
Paul U. Unschuld
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520257658
- eISBN:
- 9780520944701
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520257658.003.0093
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which has had a reassuring effect on Western nations, came from China and some parts of Japan and Korea. The Chinese were needed as technicians in Western private ...
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Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which has had a reassuring effect on Western nations, came from China and some parts of Japan and Korea. The Chinese were needed as technicians in Western private clinics. There, they were skilful helpers. However, the fears of the citizens of industrialized Western nations were foreign to them. Tailoring so-called Chinese medicine to these fears is something they could not and perhaps still cannot manage. Modern immunology offered enough of war in the humans' bodies, not so much by the immunologists themselves, but by their interpreters: science journalists. For most people, the encounter with a potentially fatal illness is the most existential threat there is. No one wants to experience war in their own house, much less in their own body. At a time of existential fear, what is wanted is to feel warmth, empathy, and harmony. This is what TCM offers. It seems reassuring.Less
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which has had a reassuring effect on Western nations, came from China and some parts of Japan and Korea. The Chinese were needed as technicians in Western private clinics. There, they were skilful helpers. However, the fears of the citizens of industrialized Western nations were foreign to them. Tailoring so-called Chinese medicine to these fears is something they could not and perhaps still cannot manage. Modern immunology offered enough of war in the humans' bodies, not so much by the immunologists themselves, but by their interpreters: science journalists. For most people, the encounter with a potentially fatal illness is the most existential threat there is. No one wants to experience war in their own house, much less in their own body. At a time of existential fear, what is wanted is to feel warmth, empathy, and harmony. This is what TCM offers. It seems reassuring.
Paul U. Unschuld
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520257658
- eISBN:
- 9780520944701
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520257658.003.0094
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) seemed reassuring to the Western nations. Among the accusations of those who despair of modern medicine, one finds dehumanization, antihumanism, detachment from the ...
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Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) seemed reassuring to the Western nations. Among the accusations of those who despair of modern medicine, one finds dehumanization, antihumanism, detachment from the human, reduction to the inorganic. The loss of the center is also, above all, the loss of central meaning. In today's world, people want more than just reality. They want to know the origin of their illness. Modern medicine cannot offer that. TCM offers a center. It offers meaning. It rejects the inorganic and centers on the life force, qi. It links various complaints and traces them back to one central illness. This gives meaning to the illness and promises a return into the greater balance, without chemicals, without technology in diagnosis and therapy, without warfare or the certainty of collateral damages.Less
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) seemed reassuring to the Western nations. Among the accusations of those who despair of modern medicine, one finds dehumanization, antihumanism, detachment from the human, reduction to the inorganic. The loss of the center is also, above all, the loss of central meaning. In today's world, people want more than just reality. They want to know the origin of their illness. Modern medicine cannot offer that. TCM offers a center. It offers meaning. It rejects the inorganic and centers on the life force, qi. It links various complaints and traces them back to one central illness. This gives meaning to the illness and promises a return into the greater balance, without chemicals, without technology in diagnosis and therapy, without warfare or the certainty of collateral damages.
Paul U. Unschuld
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520257658
- eISBN:
- 9780520944701
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520257658.003.0096
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
It is astonishing that modern Western medicine works for the Chinese and the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) works for the citizens of industrialized Western nations. This indicates a cultural ...
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It is astonishing that modern Western medicine works for the Chinese and the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) works for the citizens of industrialized Western nations. This indicates a cultural exchange which is yet incomplete. China had happily exchanged the cage of the systematic correspondences for the cage of modern science. In the West, those who could not accept the bars of chemistry, physics, and technology constructed the playpen of TCM. In this supermarket of possibilities, customers still spend the most money on products from Europe and North America. In the end, the reconstructed TCM playpen is also a Western product. But it is certainly not mainstream. The TCM doctrine is no longer in keeping with the times. The initial plausibility of its theory guaranteed its acceptance. For some time now, a transformation to convention has been taking place. Schools instruct practitioners and effects are seen.Less
It is astonishing that modern Western medicine works for the Chinese and the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) works for the citizens of industrialized Western nations. This indicates a cultural exchange which is yet incomplete. China had happily exchanged the cage of the systematic correspondences for the cage of modern science. In the West, those who could not accept the bars of chemistry, physics, and technology constructed the playpen of TCM. In this supermarket of possibilities, customers still spend the most money on products from Europe and North America. In the end, the reconstructed TCM playpen is also a Western product. But it is certainly not mainstream. The TCM doctrine is no longer in keeping with the times. The initial plausibility of its theory guaranteed its acceptance. For some time now, a transformation to convention has been taking place. Schools instruct practitioners and effects are seen.
Joan Costa-Font and Azusa Sato
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262035651
- eISBN:
- 9780262337915
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262035651.003.0011
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, History of Economic Thought
Traditional medicines continue to be widely used worldwide despite the increasing availability of modern medicines. We term this phenomenon the ‘traditional medicines paradox’. We investigate a ...
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Traditional medicines continue to be widely used worldwide despite the increasing availability of modern medicines. We term this phenomenon the ‘traditional medicines paradox’. We investigate a potential explanation for such a paradox, namely the presence of ‘entrenched cultural beliefs’ in explaining continued use. As such, this paper draws upon unique data collected in Ghana to examine the impact of 6 attitudes towards traditional medicines and healers on utilisation. To further test the importance of attitudes, we look at data from the Philippines. In both cases, cultural attitudes such as perceived healer knowledge, trust, belief in ability to cure, and acceptability are found to be significantly associated with utilisation. Hence it is unlikely that traditional medicines will be supplanted simply by increasing access to modern drugs as they are not perceived to be substitutes and the systems exhibit divergent logic.Less
Traditional medicines continue to be widely used worldwide despite the increasing availability of modern medicines. We term this phenomenon the ‘traditional medicines paradox’. We investigate a potential explanation for such a paradox, namely the presence of ‘entrenched cultural beliefs’ in explaining continued use. As such, this paper draws upon unique data collected in Ghana to examine the impact of 6 attitudes towards traditional medicines and healers on utilisation. To further test the importance of attitudes, we look at data from the Philippines. In both cases, cultural attitudes such as perceived healer knowledge, trust, belief in ability to cure, and acceptability are found to be significantly associated with utilisation. Hence it is unlikely that traditional medicines will be supplanted simply by increasing access to modern drugs as they are not perceived to be substitutes and the systems exhibit divergent logic.
Paul U. Unschuld
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520257658
- eISBN:
- 9780520944701
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520257658.003.0095
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
Traditional Chinese medicine not only effects the body, as well as the mind in a very concrete way. However, before the effect on the body, came the word, that is, the theory. The Word alone seemed ...
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Traditional Chinese medicine not only effects the body, as well as the mind in a very concrete way. However, before the effect on the body, came the word, that is, the theory. The Word alone seemed reassuring to the mind, because it spoke to so many fears. Theory had the glow of plausibility. It lured the citizens of industrialized Western nations. The Word alone seemed reassuring to the mind, because it spoke to so many fears. The effects on the body, eliminating pain and other afflictions had happy, contented patients. TCM was also about the Word in the beginning, and it was effective, convincing, and reassuring. Clinical success came later. Therefore, it would be pointless to get into statistically analyzing the TCM.Less
Traditional Chinese medicine not only effects the body, as well as the mind in a very concrete way. However, before the effect on the body, came the word, that is, the theory. The Word alone seemed reassuring to the mind, because it spoke to so many fears. Theory had the glow of plausibility. It lured the citizens of industrialized Western nations. The Word alone seemed reassuring to the mind, because it spoke to so many fears. The effects on the body, eliminating pain and other afflictions had happy, contented patients. TCM was also about the Word in the beginning, and it was effective, convincing, and reassuring. Clinical success came later. Therefore, it would be pointless to get into statistically analyzing the TCM.
John Paul DiMoia
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804784115
- eISBN:
- 9780804786133
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804784115.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter considers the question of biomedicine versus traditional practice in Korea, tracing the gradual marginalization of the latter category by successive foreign regimes, first Japanese, and ...
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This chapter considers the question of biomedicine versus traditional practice in Korea, tracing the gradual marginalization of the latter category by successive foreign regimes, first Japanese, and subsequently American. Focusing on the life of one traditional hanuihak (traditional Korean medicine) practitioner, Byun Sang-hun, the chapter illustrates how this figure would be replaced by a younger generation of biomedically trained medical professionals, even as Mr. Byung would remain a powerful symbol of Korean nationalism.Less
This chapter considers the question of biomedicine versus traditional practice in Korea, tracing the gradual marginalization of the latter category by successive foreign regimes, first Japanese, and subsequently American. Focusing on the life of one traditional hanuihak (traditional Korean medicine) practitioner, Byun Sang-hun, the chapter illustrates how this figure would be replaced by a younger generation of biomedically trained medical professionals, even as Mr. Byung would remain a powerful symbol of Korean nationalism.
