Ethnomedicine » (1st Edition)

"People throughout time and place, no matter their belief system, have sought to discover causes and cures for illness and disease. Among Westerners is a groundswell to augment biomedicine with holistic practices inherent in ethnomedicines of non-Western traditions. Yet missing are awareness and knowledge of the foundations and outgrowth of these alternative concepts." Erickson fills this gap by clearly explaining the basic organizing principles that underlie all medical systems, the full range of theories of disease causation, the geographical distribution of medical practices, and the historical trends that led to biomedical dominance. Her efficient, balanced approach highlights commonalities among the world's vast and diverse medical systems, making ethnomedicine easier to internalize and to apply in clinical settings.

1 What Is Ethnomedicine? 1

Anthropology and Ethnomedicine 2

Medical Systems 5

Health: Disease and Curing, Illness and Healing 9

Conclusion 10

2 Historical Origins of Medical Systems 13

Medical Systems and Subsistence Strategies 15

The Great Historical Medical Traditions 21

Comparison of the Great Medical Traditions 27

Conclusion 33

3 What Causes Disease? Theories of Disease Causation 35

Personalistic and Naturalistic Disease Causation 39

Common Theories of Disease Causation in Nonbiomedical Systems 42

Conclusion 56

4 The Geography of Disease Causation Theories 59

Theories of Disease/Illness Causation in the Ethnographic Past 60

Contemporary Trends in Theories of Disease Causation 65

The Culture-Bound Syndromes 92

Conclusion 94

5 The Healing Lessons of Ethnomedicine 99

What Do Ethnomedicines Tell Us? 99

What Do the Ethnomedicine Lessons Mean for Cultural Competence in Biomedical Care? 104

The Future of Ethnomedicines 107

References 109

Index 121