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.
Healing Powers and Modernity
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
“These compelling studies of local healers caught in global currents can stand on their own.”–Philosophy East & West
“The book is an excellent introduction to the medical anthropology of the region. While acknowledging the dominance of biomedicine in modernist nation states in Asia, it also helps to show the power relations inherent in the operation of healing praxis. It is a highly readable book, with fieldwork located at the centre of the individual contributions....This essential reading for anyone interested in healing praxis and for those with a research interest in Asian societies.”–Cambridge University Press
“[i]ntriguing and electric.”–The Journal of The Royal Anthropological Institute
“I have always looked to anthropology to generate ideas of global relevance from the detailed description of local healing encounters. Healing Powers and Modernity does exactly this. The chapters are all well written by medical anthropologies working with societies in Southeast and East Asia. The editors, Linda Connor and Geoffrey Samuel, have done well to bring these diverse casestudies together into a coherent whole....This is an important and timely book. It is rich in case material detail but also contains enough anthropological reflection to demonstrate the global relevance of these accounts.”–Social Science & Medicine
“The book is an excellent introduction to the medical anthropology of the region. While acknowledging the dominance of biomedicine in modernist nation states in Asia, it also helps to show the power relations inherent in the operation of healing praxis. It is a highly readable book, with fieldwork located at the centre of the individual contributions....This essential reading for anyone interested in healing praxis and for those with a research interest in Asian societies.”–
“[i]ntriguing and electric.”–
“I have always looked to anthropology to generate ideas of global relevance from the detailed description of local healing encounters. Healing Powers and Modernity does exactly this. The chapters are all well written by medical anthropologies working with societies in Southeast and East Asia. The editors, Linda Connor and Geoffrey Samuel, have done well to bring these diverse casestudies together into a coherent whole....This is an important and timely book. It is rich in case material detail but also contains enough anthropological reflection to demonstrate the global relevance of these accounts.”–
About the Author
LINDA H. CONNOR is Associate Professor, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, The University of Newcastle, Australia.
GEOFFREY SAMUEL is Professor of Anthropology, The University of New Castle, Australia.
GEOFFREY SAMUEL is Professor of Anthropology, The University of New Castle, Australia.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Trafitional Asian Medicine(s) and Science,
By
This review is from: Healing Powers and Modernity: Traditional Medicine, Shamanism, and Science in Asian Societies (Hardcover)
This is a must book to read for researchers looking at the various
traditional Asian healing traditions. It also provides a good theoretical framework for looking at the current process of globalization while at the same time critically looking at the ideology of science and modernity. Dr. Rey Tiquia PhD Melbourne, Australia
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
When we consider "modernity" not as an inevitable and unidirectional process, but rather, in Baudrillard's (1987) sense, as something like a viral ideology that has infected most of the globe but mutated, waxed, and sometimes waned in local settings (Rofel 1992), then new questions can be asked. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
pelian chant, pagar api, waktu lima, defective modernization, waktu telu, longhouse residents, medical tantras, indigenous midwives, socialist modernity, longhouse community, health quest, precious pills, medical pluralism, longhouse communities, integrated medicine, feudal superstition, urine diagnosis, healing efficacy, primary health care system, systematic correspondence, civilizing project, indigenous healing, becoming chilled Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Cik Su, Pak Long, New York, Gyü Shi, University of California Press, Amchi Trinlay, Cambridge University Press, Pak Sudikin, Men-ngag Gyü, Oxford University Press, Ibu Rumiah, South India, Tibet Autonomous Region, Inaq Sudikin, Kalpana Ram, University of Chicago Press, Cultural Revolution, Geoffrey Samuel, Laurel Kendall, Tamil Nadu, Lhasa Mentsik'ang, North India, Than of Sarawak, Kuala Lumpur, Pak Daud New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
When we consider "modernity" not as an inevitable and unidirectional process, but rather, in Baudrillard's (1987) sense, as something like a viral ideology that has infected most of the globe but mutated, waxed, and sometimes waned in local settings (Rofel 1992), then new questions can be asked. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
pelian chant, pagar api, waktu lima, defective modernization, waktu telu, longhouse residents, medical tantras, indigenous midwives, socialist modernity, longhouse community, health quest, precious pills, medical pluralism, longhouse communities, integrated medicine, feudal superstition, urine diagnosis, healing efficacy, primary health care system, systematic correspondence, civilizing project, indigenous healing, becoming chilled Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Cik Su, Pak Long, New York, Gyü Shi, University of California Press, Amchi Trinlay, Cambridge University Press, Pak Sudikin, Men-ngag Gyü, Oxford University Press, Ibu Rumiah, South India, Tibet Autonomous Region, Inaq Sudikin, Kalpana Ram, University of Chicago Press, Cultural Revolution, Geoffrey Samuel, Laurel Kendall, Tamil Nadu, Lhasa Mentsik'ang, North India, Than of Sarawak, Kuala Lumpur, Pak Daud New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 27
books:
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7
books
cite this book:
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- Lectures on Tibetan Medicine by Yeshi Dhonden; Lobsang Dolma Khangkar on page 244, page 265, and page 266
- Paths to Asian Medical Knowledge (Comparative Studies of Health Systems and Medical Care) by Charles Leslie on page 5, and page 246
- Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West by Donald S. Lopez Jr. on page 220
- What's Inside My Body by Inc. Dorling Kindersley in Front Matter
- Pig Iron, No. 15: Third World by Jim Villani on page 20
See all 27 books this book cites
- New Horizons in Medical Anthropology: Essays in Honour of Charles Leslie (Theory and Practice in Medicalanthropology) by Margaret Lock on page 136, and page 138
- Women, Islam and Modernity: Single Women, Sexuality and Reproductive Health in Contemporary Indonesia (ASAA Women in Asia Series) by Linda Rae Bennett in Back Matter
- New Horizons in Medical Anthropology: Essays in Honour of Charles Leslie (Theory and Practice in Medicalanthropology) by Margaret Lock on page 138
- Daughters of Hariti: Childbirth and Female Healers in South and Southeast Asia (Theory and Practice in Medical Anthropology and Internationa) by Santi Rozario on page 32
- Asian Medicine and Globalization (Encounters with Asia) by Joseph S. Alter on page 4
See all 7 books citing this book
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