This is a study of traditional medical education in the People's Republic of China. The author became a disciple of a scholarly private practitioner, a Qigong master; attended courses given by a senior acupuncturist and masseur; and studied with undergraduates at the Yunnan College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, where the standardized knowledge of official Chinese medicine is inculcated. She compares theories and practices of these different Chinese medical traditions, and her fascinating insider's account of traditional medical practices brings out the way in which the context of...

This stimulating collection of essays, a product of a dialogue among anthropologists, sociologists, and philosopher-historians, focuses on the newly created biomedical technologies and their practical applications. Drawing on ethnographic and historical case studies, the authors show how biomedical technologies are produced through the agencies of tools and techniques, scientists and doctors, funding bodies, patients, and the public. Despite shared concerns, the authors achieve no consensus about their research objectives, and deep epistemological divides clearly remain, making for...

Demonstrating how practitioners in the emerging field of "cultural epidemiology" describe human health, communicate with diverse audiences, and intervene to improve health and prevent disease, this book uses textual and statistical portraits of disease to describe interdisciplinary collaborations. Interpreting epidemiology as a cultural practice helps to reveal the ways in which measurement, causal thinking, and intervention design are influenced by belief, habit, and theories of power.

Demonstrating how practitioners in the emerging field of "cultural epidemiology" describe human health, communicate with diverse audiences, and intervene to improve health and prevent disease, this book uses textual and statistical portraits of disease to describe interdisciplinary collaborations. Interpreting epidemiology as a cultural practice helps to reveal the ways in which measurement, causal thinking, and intervention design are influenced by belief, habit, and theories of power.

The focus of this book is medicines (swallowed, injected, rubbed on), as understood by anthropologists concerned solely with their social uses. The text begins with examples of a mother medicating a child in various cultural contexts and ends with a broad review of the complex elements that determine the production and use of medicines. Since 1993, Cambridge Studies in Medical Anthropology has offered researchers and instructors monographs and edited collections of leading scholarship in one of the most lively and popular subfields of cultural and social anthropology. Beginning in 2002, the...

Highlighting the roles of ecology, culture, history, and political economy, this book considers how the unique mountain ecology and socio-cultural patterns of the Himalayan region of Ladakh contribute to a peculiar pattern of infant mortality. It stresses the burdens of women's work in this region as crucial to birth outcome. An example of a new genre of anthropological work called "ethnographic human biology," this study utilizes the methodology of human biology but strongly emphasizes the ethnographic context that provides meaning for human biological measures.

There is growing interest in "therapeutic narratives" and the relation between narrative and healing. Cheryl Mattingly's ethnography of the practice of occupational therapy in a North American hospital investigates the complex interconnections between narrative and experience in clinical work. Viewing the world of disability as a socially constructed experience, it presents fascinatingly detailed case studies of clinical interactions between occupational therapists and patients, many of them severely injured and disabled, and illustrates the diverse ways in which an ordinary clinical...

This book examines the role of Nepali physicians in the revolutionary changes in 1990. These Western trained doctors have always been concerned with developing a form of medical practice relevant to Nepali conditions, that speaks to local conceptions about health, and so their medical practice was always politicized. The author reveals how very fine the line is between politics and scientific medical truth claims. Her study encompasses both the modern political history of Nepal and the role of medicine in a poor, largely rural, Hindu kingdom.

This book examines the role of the Nepali physicians in the revolutionary changes in 1990. These doctors are trained in the Western tradition, and participate in international scientific debates, yet they have always been concerned to develop a form of medical practice that was relevant to Nepali conditions, and which could speak to local conceptions about health, and so their medical practice was always politicized. Vincanne Adams argues that the commitment of these professionals to the values of science, and to public health, was crucial in their political activity, and that ideas and...

This study of adversity and its social causes in rural Uganda considers how people deal with life's uncertainties--sickness, suffering, marital problems, failure, and death. Divination may identify causes of misfortune, ranging from ancestors and spirits to sorcerers. Sufferers and their families will then try out a variety of remedial measures, including pharmaceuticals, sorcery substances, and sacrifices. But remedies often fail, and doubt and uncertainty persist. The peril of AIDS can also be understood in terms of the existing pattern of uncertainty.