Pub Date : 2020-03-19DOI: 10.1163/15734218-12341454
Olaf Czaja
This article will explore the relationship between Tibetan medicine and Tibetan Buddhism by analyzing early Tibetan medical treatises. It will investigate mantras, meditative visualizations, and rituals that were used to prevent and to cure diseases and will study their medical context. Some of the questions addressed will be: Are these techniques employed in the case of special diseases or at particular stages of medical treatment? If so, how firmly are they established in medical texts? Are they just accessary parts and not really “medical,” or do they form an integral part of medical expertise in premodern Tibet? This article will thus question our current understanding of Tibetan medicine from an emic textual perspective on healing practices.
{"title":"Mantras and Rituals in Tibetan Medicine","authors":"Olaf Czaja","doi":"10.1163/15734218-12341454","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15734218-12341454","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article will explore the relationship between Tibetan medicine and Tibetan Buddhism by analyzing early Tibetan medical treatises. It will investigate mantras, meditative visualizations, and rituals that were used to prevent and to cure diseases and will study their medical context. Some of the questions addressed will be: Are these techniques employed in the case of special diseases or at particular stages of medical treatment? If so, how firmly are they established in medical texts? Are they just accessary parts and not really “medical,” or do they form an integral part of medical expertise in premodern Tibet? This article will thus question our current understanding of Tibetan medicine from an emic textual perspective on healing practices.","PeriodicalId":34972,"journal":{"name":"Asian Medicine","volume":"4 1","pages":"277-312"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88923380","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-03-19DOI: 10.1163/15734218-12341450
Kira Schmidt Stiedenroth
The therapeutic success of Asian medicine has been discussed mostly in relation to efficacy, effectiveness, and evidence thereof. By taking Unani medicine as an example, this article calls for the reconsideration of the dominance of biomedical frameworks in the anthropological study of Asian medicine by paying closer attention to emic dimensions of successful treatment and their relation to eminence. On the basis of ethnographic fieldwork among practitioners of Unani (Greco-Islamic) medicine in India and following a practice ontology approach, the author examines how private-practicing hakims (Unani physicians) enact successful treatment in their everyday practice. For them, therapeutic success is closely connected to professional authority, a legacy of the Greco-Islamic tradition, in which therapeutic success is also enacted through eminence. Approaching therapeutic success beyond the therapeutic outcome draws attention to further dimensions at stake, revealing that scientific evidence is not necessarily the dominant enactment of successful treatment in Asian medicine.
{"title":"Beyond Evidence","authors":"Kira Schmidt Stiedenroth","doi":"10.1163/15734218-12341450","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15734218-12341450","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The therapeutic success of Asian medicine has been discussed mostly in relation to efficacy, effectiveness, and evidence thereof. By taking Unani medicine as an example, this article calls for the reconsideration of the dominance of biomedical frameworks in the anthropological study of Asian medicine by paying closer attention to emic dimensions of successful treatment and their relation to eminence. On the basis of ethnographic fieldwork among practitioners of Unani (Greco-Islamic) medicine in India and following a practice ontology approach, the author examines how private-practicing hakims (Unani physicians) enact successful treatment in their everyday practice. For them, therapeutic success is closely connected to professional authority, a legacy of the Greco-Islamic tradition, in which therapeutic success is also enacted through eminence. Approaching therapeutic success beyond the therapeutic outcome draws attention to further dimensions at stake, revealing that scientific evidence is not necessarily the dominant enactment of successful treatment in Asian medicine.","PeriodicalId":34972,"journal":{"name":"Asian Medicine","volume":"23 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78310221","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-03-19DOI: 10.1163/15734218-12341455
K. Triplett
The Indian idea of supernatural entities, or “demons,” that harm children found its way into Chinese translations of Buddhist texts. Through Buddhism, the idea also reached premodern Japan. Given that medicine in premodern Japan was predominantly practiced by “secular” court physicians and Buddhist monastic doctors, one might assume that court physicians focused on childhood diseases with “natural” causes, while Buddhist monastics concentrated on “supernatural” causes and ritual remedies for childhood illnesses. I aim to establish whether this was actually the case by assessing ideas and practices as well as social institutions and individuals engaged in the healing of children in premodern Japan. The wider Asian context will also be considered. I conclude that in caring for children, “demonology” was combined with ideas and practices from diverse traditions in Japan and remained alive largely outside—but not in opposition to—the Buddhist and medical institutions well into the early modern period.
{"title":"Pediatric Care and Buddhism in Premodern Japan: A Case of Applied “Demonology”?","authors":"K. Triplett","doi":"10.1163/15734218-12341455","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15734218-12341455","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The Indian idea of supernatural entities, or “demons,” that harm children found its way into Chinese translations of Buddhist texts. Through Buddhism, the idea also reached premodern Japan. Given that medicine in premodern Japan was predominantly practiced by “secular” court physicians and Buddhist monastic doctors, one might assume that court physicians focused on childhood diseases with “natural” causes, while Buddhist monastics concentrated on “supernatural” causes and ritual remedies for childhood illnesses. I aim to establish whether this was actually the case by assessing ideas and practices as well as social institutions and individuals engaged in the healing of children in premodern Japan. The wider Asian context will also be considered. I conclude that in caring for children, “demonology” was combined with ideas and practices from diverse traditions in Japan and remained alive largely outside—but not in opposition to—the Buddhist and medical institutions well into the early modern period.","PeriodicalId":34972,"journal":{"name":"Asian Medicine","volume":"68 1","pages":"313-341"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80257679","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-09-02DOI: 10.1163/15734218-12341441
Eric I. Karchmer
{"title":"The Making of Modern Chinese Medicine, 1850–1960, written by Bridie Andrews","authors":"Eric I. Karchmer","doi":"10.1163/15734218-12341441","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15734218-12341441","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":34972,"journal":{"name":"Asian Medicine","volume":"45 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81326876","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-09-02DOI: 10.1163/15734218-12341436
J. Stein
Reiki practitioners commonly claim to channel a power called reiki that is capable of physical, mental, and spiritual healing. Prior scholarship has assumed that the concept of reiki has remained similar from Reiki’s founding in 1922 Japan to the present day, when it is practiced worldwide. This article presents a genealogy of reiki from Reiki’s early days in Japan to its adaptations for the Japanese American community of Hawai‘i in the 1930s and for white Americans in the postwar decades, and its return to Japan in the 1980s. It shows that, over time, reiki became understood as “energy,” in part as an appeal to scientific authority, and as “universal,” in the dual sense that it pervades the cosmos and is accessible to all people. In the back-translation of “universal energy” into Japanese, this double meaning of “universal” in English was lost but, as “universe energy” (uchū enerugii), took on new, extraterrestrial connotations.
{"title":"“Universe Energy”","authors":"J. Stein","doi":"10.1163/15734218-12341436","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15734218-12341436","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Reiki practitioners commonly claim to channel a power called reiki that is capable of physical, mental, and spiritual healing. Prior scholarship has assumed that the concept of reiki has remained similar from Reiki’s founding in 1922 Japan to the present day, when it is practiced worldwide. This article presents a genealogy of reiki from Reiki’s early days in Japan to its adaptations for the Japanese American community of Hawai‘i in the 1930s and for white Americans in the postwar decades, and its return to Japan in the 1980s. It shows that, over time, reiki became understood as “energy,” in part as an appeal to scientific authority, and as “universal,” in the dual sense that it pervades the cosmos and is accessible to all people. In the back-translation of “universal energy” into Japanese, this double meaning of “universal” in English was lost but, as “universe energy” (uchū enerugii), took on new, extraterrestrial connotations.","PeriodicalId":34972,"journal":{"name":"Asian Medicine","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89819850","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-09-02DOI: 10.1163/15734218-12341447
A. Bay
{"title":"Forgotten Disease: Illnesses Transformed in Chinese Medicine, written by Hilary A. Smith","authors":"A. Bay","doi":"10.1163/15734218-12341447","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15734218-12341447","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":34972,"journal":{"name":"Asian Medicine","volume":"2015 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88447013","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-09-02DOI: 10.1163/15734218-12341437
Chithprabha Kudlu, M. Nichter
India’s share in the global herbal market is dwarfed by that of China. Public and policy discourse in India exhorts Ayurvedic stakeholders to emulate Chinese medicine’s “science-based approach” to expand their global market share. But contrary to popular perception in India, China has been largely unsuccessful in making inroads into the coveted Euro-American herbal medicine market. Chinese medicine’s global footprint is largely the result of historical-cultural links, diasporic influences, and acupuncture practitioners. With national traditional medicine policies increasingly shaped by the evidence-based regulatory paradigm, the future of these informal bottom-up pathways is uncertain. Ignoring the roots of Chinese medicine’s global career has led to a distorted image of its “success” as an outcome of state investment in scientific validation and standardization programs. Our findings underscore the need to critically examine the imaginaries of success that drive stakeholders of non-biomedical traditions toward scientization to earn legitimacy and profits in the global realm.
{"title":"Indian Imaginaries of Chinese Success in the Global Herbal Medicine Market","authors":"Chithprabha Kudlu, M. Nichter","doi":"10.1163/15734218-12341437","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15734218-12341437","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000India’s share in the global herbal market is dwarfed by that of China. Public and policy discourse in India exhorts Ayurvedic stakeholders to emulate Chinese medicine’s “science-based approach” to expand their global market share. But contrary to popular perception in India, China has been largely unsuccessful in making inroads into the coveted Euro-American herbal medicine market. Chinese medicine’s global footprint is largely the result of historical-cultural links, diasporic influences, and acupuncture practitioners. With national traditional medicine policies increasingly shaped by the evidence-based regulatory paradigm, the future of these informal bottom-up pathways is uncertain. Ignoring the roots of Chinese medicine’s global career has led to a distorted image of its “success” as an outcome of state investment in scientific validation and standardization programs. Our findings underscore the need to critically examine the imaginaries of success that drive stakeholders of non-biomedical traditions toward scientization to earn legitimacy and profits in the global realm.","PeriodicalId":34972,"journal":{"name":"Asian Medicine","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86644057","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-09-02DOI: 10.1163/15734218-12341438
Calum Blaikie
This article examines the “mainstreaming” of Sowa Rigpa (Tibetan medicine) into primary healthcare in Ladakh, Himalayan India. It explores fields largely overlooked by existing studies of medical integration, such as the social dynamics of public health facilities, the effects of limited drug supplies, and changes in medicine production. Although Sowa Rigpa practitioners experience aspects of their integration as positive, it is also forcing approaches toward prescription practice, patient care, and pharmaceutical production that are at odds with their clinical, social, ethical, and practical grounding. The article argues that integration is exacerbating existing inequalities while creating new forms of hardship and marginality. However, paradoxically, only by occupying such marginal spaces can the amchi continue practicing Sowa Rigpa in a recognizable form. The article later reflects on what the Ladakhi case tells us about the Indian government’s policy of “rational integration” and contributes to debates concerning subaltern therapeutic modes and medical pluralism.
{"title":"Mainstreaming Marginality","authors":"Calum Blaikie","doi":"10.1163/15734218-12341438","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15734218-12341438","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article examines the “mainstreaming” of Sowa Rigpa (Tibetan medicine) into primary healthcare in Ladakh, Himalayan India. It explores fields largely overlooked by existing studies of medical integration, such as the social dynamics of public health facilities, the effects of limited drug supplies, and changes in medicine production. Although Sowa Rigpa practitioners experience aspects of their integration as positive, it is also forcing approaches toward prescription practice, patient care, and pharmaceutical production that are at odds with their clinical, social, ethical, and practical grounding. The article argues that integration is exacerbating existing inequalities while creating new forms of hardship and marginality. However, paradoxically, only by occupying such marginal spaces can the amchi continue practicing Sowa Rigpa in a recognizable form. The article later reflects on what the Ladakhi case tells us about the Indian government’s policy of “rational integration” and contributes to debates concerning subaltern therapeutic modes and medical pluralism.","PeriodicalId":34972,"journal":{"name":"Asian Medicine","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82226890","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-09-02DOI: 10.1163/15734218-12341440
R. Berger
{"title":"Imperial Maladies: Literatures on Healthcare and Psychoanalysis in India, edited by Debashis Bandyopadhyay and Pritha Kundu Colonial Modernities: Midwifery in Bengal, c. 1860–1947, written by Ambalika Guha","authors":"R. Berger","doi":"10.1163/15734218-12341440","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15734218-12341440","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":34972,"journal":{"name":"Asian Medicine","volume":"89 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76523739","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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