Healing in Community: Medicine, Contested Terrains, and Cultural Encounters Among the Tuareg [Hardcover]

Susan Rasmussen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0897897617 | ISBN-13: 978-0897897617 | Publication Date: July 30, 2001 | Edition: First Edition

Exploring the multiple communities of healing among the Tuareg people of Niger, this work examines the beliefs and practices that surround healing and the quest for medicine. In studying ideals of healing that face challenges from wider political and economic forces, the author enables us to understand these culturally and historically constructed processes. This leads us to comprehend how many Tuareg construct and deconstruct local notions of medicine and healers, how patients cope with current problems in health care, and more broadly, how medical knowledge is constructed in anthropology and ethnography. Rasmussen reveals new perspectives on healing in systems of power and symbolism, bridging interpretive cultural and political economy approaches. This book explores the consequences and implications of the idea that in order to obtain medicine, one must submit to authority, but proceeds beyond merely demonstrating this idea, already largely a truism in anthropology. The Tuareg data show how local residents are not passive victims, but rather active agents in responding to and resisting authority structures of medicine and medical knowledge.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Rasmussen has emerged as the expert on Tuareg studies, dealing specifically with the people around the Air mountain region in Niger. Graduate students and professionals.”–Choice

“[s]ophisticated and insightful....succeeds in demonstrating the author's understanding of the various aspects of healing and medicine among the Tuareg, as well as their position in national politics and world history.”–Journal of The Royal Anthropological Institute

“Rasmussen has written a valuable account of Tuareg healing. It describes Tuareg ideas and practices at the same time as it provides an interesting commentary on such current anthropological topics as reflexivity, globalization, the body, and personhood.”–Journal of Anthropological Research

About the Author

SUSAN RASMUSSEN is Professor of Anthropology, University of Houston.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Bergin & Garvey; First Edition edition (July 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0897897617
• ISBN-13: 978-0897897617
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #983,589 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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