Healing powers and modernity : traditional medicine, shamanism, and science in Asian societies / edited by Linda H. Connor and Geoffrey Samuel.

Cover image for Healing powers and modernity : traditional medicine, shamanism, and science in Asian societies / edited by Linda H. Connor and Geoffrey Samuel.

ISBN:

9780313002762

9780897897150

Title:

Healing powers and modernity : traditional medicine, shamanism, and science in Asian societies / edited by Linda H. Connor and Geoffrey Samuel.

Author:

Connor, Linda, 1950-

Publication Information:

Westport, CT : Bergin & Garvey, 2000.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 283 pages) : illustrations

Contents:

Healing powers in contemporary Asia / Linda H. Connor -- Healing in the modern state: Korea, Malaysia, and India. The cultural politics of "superstition" in the Korean Shaman world: modernity constructs its other / Laurel Kendall -- Tradition and change in Malay healing / Carol Laderman -- Modernity and the midwife: contestations over a subaltern figure, South India / Kalpana Ram -- The political ecology of health in India: indigestion as sign and symptom of defective modernization / Mark Nichter -- Healing on the margins: Malaysia, Indonesia, and China. Engaging the spirits of modernity: the Temiars / Marina Roseman -- Presence, efficacy, and politics in healing among the Iban of Sarawak / Amanda Harris -- Sorcery and science as competing models of explanation in a Sasak village / Cynthia L. Hunter -- Medicines and modernities in socialist China: medical pluralism, the state, and Naxi identities in the Lijiang Basin / Sydney D. White -- Healing, power, and identity in Tibetan societies. Tibetan medicine at the crossroads: radical modernity and the social organization of traditional medicine in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China / Craig R. Janes -- Particularizing modernity: Tibetan medical theorizing of women's health in Lhasa, Tibet / Vincanne Adams -- Tibetan medicine in contemporary India: theory and practice / Geoffrey Samuel -- Glossary of Tibetan terms.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Subject Term:

Healing -- Asia.

Social medicine -- Asia.

Traditional medicine -- Asia.

Shamanism -- Asia.

Medicine, Traditional.

Geographic Term:

Added Author:

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

Click here to view

Publication Date:

2000

Publication Information:

Westport, CT : Bergin & Garvey, 2000.

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
615.5095 21	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

What is the current state of traditional healing practices in contemporary Asian societies? How are their practitioners faring in the encounter with Western science and its biomedical approach? How are traditional healing practices being transformed by the politics of health within the modern nation-state and by the processes of commodification typical of modern economies? How do patients in Asian societies see the various healing options now open to them?The authors, all of whom are anthropologists, observe the clashes and complementarities between traditional therapies and biomedicine, which, in its many manifestations, is the dominant form of medicine supported by national governments, and is emblematic of the modernity to which they aspire. Some of the medical traditions, such as the sophisticated herbal-humoral systems of Tibetan medicine and Indian Ayurveda, are becoming well known in the West, both through scholarly study and through their increasing popularity with Western patients interested in their healing potential. This book adds a new dimension to their study, being focused unlike most previous writing on practice rather than textual tradition.

Author Notes

LINDA H. CONNOR is Associate Professor, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, The University of Newcastle, Australia./eGEOFFREY SAMUEL is Professor of Anthropology, The University of New Castle, Australia./e

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

Larger in scope and more directly concerned with the problematic nature of modernity, this volume picks up where Paths to Asian Medical Knowledge, by C. Leslie and A. Young (1992), concludes. One of its many virtues is its engagement with a wide range of health issues, not limited to questions of epistemology, efficacy, and medical theory. Many of the 12 contributions are based on ethnographic fieldwork and engage admirably with contemporary theorizing about the body, historical process, and power. The volume seeks to integrate different levels of influence on healing, ranging from the state's role in controlling and orienting shamanism, midwifery, and sorcery to problems of identity, both national and personal. One of the few problems is that the logic behind the book's three internal subdivisions is not clear. Part 1 deals with the state, yet the state's role is central to almost all the contributions. Part 2 speaks of "healing on the margins," yet given the nuanced perspective on globalization in many of the essays, one wonders about distinguishing between margins and centers. Despite the problem of devoting a whole subdivision to a single area, one of the most important contributions is the placement Tibetan medicine at the center of discussions about traditional medicine in modern Asia. Upper-division undergraduates and above. J. S. Alter University of Pittsburgh

Preface	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
1 Healing Powers in Contemporary Asia	p. 3
Part I Healing in the Modern State: Korea, Malaysia, and India	p. 23
2 The Cultural Politics of "superstition" in the Korean Shaman World: Modernity Constructs Its Other	p. 25
3 Tradition and Change in Malay Healing	p. 42
References	p. 62
4 Modernity and the Midwife: Contestations over a Subaltern Figure, South India	p. 64
5 The Political Ecology of Health in India: Indigestion as Sign and Symptom of Defective Modernization	p. 85
Part II Healing on the Margins: Malaysia, Indonesia, and China	p. 107
6 Engaging the Spirits of Modernity: The Temiars	p. 109
References	p. 128
7 Presence, Efficacy, and Politics in Healing among the Iban of Sarawak	p. 130
8 Sorcery and Science as Competing Models of Explanation in a Sasak Village	p. 152
9 Medicines and Modernities in Socialist China: Medical Pluralism, the State, and Naxi Identities in the Lijiang Basin	p. 171
Part III Healing, Power, and Identity in Tibetan Societies	p. 195
10 Tibetan Medicine at the Crossroads: Radical Modernity and the Social Organization of Traditional Medicine in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China	p. 197
11 Particularizing Modernity: Tibetan Medical Theorizing of Women's Health in Lhasa, Tibet	p. 222
12 Tibetan Medicine in Contemporary India: Theory and Practice	p. 247
Index	p. 275
About the Editors and Contributors	p. 281

Available:*

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

Table of Contents