1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910812186003321

Titolo

Asian medicine and globalization / / edited by Joseph S. Alter

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Philadelphia, : University of Pennsylvania Press, c2005

ISBN

0-8122-0525-1

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (196 p.)

Collana

Encounters with Asia

Altri autori (Persone)

AlterJoseph S

Disciplina

306.4/61/095

Soggetti

Traditional medicine - Asia

Medicine, Ayurvedic - Asia

Asia Social life and customs

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [151]-176) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Chapter 1. Introduction: The Politics of Culture and Medicine -- Chapter 2. Āyurvedic Acupuncture-Transnational Nationalism: Ambivalence About the Origin and Authenticity of Medical Knowledge / Alter, Joseph S. -- Chapter 3. Deviant Airs in "Traditional" Chinese Medicine / Lo, Vivienne / Schroer, Sylvia -- Chapter 4. Reinventing Traditional Medicine: Method, Institutional Change, and the Manufacture of Drugs and Medication in Late Colonial India / Habib, S. Irfan / Raina, Dhruv -- Chapter 5. Health and Medicine in British India and Dutch Indies: A Comparative Study / Kumar, Deepak -- Chapter 6. Nationalism, Transnationalism, and the Politics of "Traditional" Indian Medicine for HIV/ AIDS / Hollen, Cecilia Van -- Chapter 7. Mapping Science and Nation in China / Chen, Nancy N. -- Chapter 8. Sanskrit Gynecologies in Postmodernity: The Commoditization of Indian Medicine in Alternative Medical and New Age Discourses on Women's Health / Selby, Martha Ann -- Chapter 9. China Reconstructs: Cosmetic Surgery and Nationalism in the Reform Era / Brownell, Susan -- Notes -- References -- CONTRIBUTORS -- Index -- Acknowledgments

Sommario/riassunto

Medical systems function in specific cultural contexts. It is common to speak of the medicine of China, Japan, India, and other nation-states. Yet almost all formalized medical systems claim universal applicability and, thus, are ready to cross the cultural boundaries that contain them.



There is a critical tension, in theory and practice, in the ways regional medical systems are conceptualized as "nationalistic" or inherently transnational. This volume is concerned with questions and problems created by the friction between nationalism and transnationalism at a time when globalization has greatly complicated the notion of cultural, political, and economic boundedness. Offering a range of perspectives, the contributors address questions such as: How do states concern themselves with the modernization of "traditional" medicine? How does the global hegemony of science enable the nationalist articulation of alternative medicine? How do global discourses of science and "new age" spirituality facilitate the transnationalization of "Asian" medicine? As more and more Asian medical practices cross boundaries into Western culture through the popularity of yoga and herbalism, and as Western medicine finds its way east, these systems of meaning become inextricably interrelated. These essays consider the larger implications of transmissions between cultures.