The recent emergence of Asian “traditional” medicines as increasingly popular medical, economic, ... more The recent emergence of Asian “traditional” medicines as increasingly popular medical, economic, and cultural resources in national and international health care policies has coincided with a renewed academic—especially medical anthropological—interest in the wider topic. The realization that medical traditions like Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, or Sowa Rigpa have—or are currently being—transformed into modern, innovative, and lucrative industries has opened up space for exciting new perspectives and research on medical history, global health, reformulation regimes, or pharmaceutical assemblages (e.g., Lei 2014; Pordié and Gaudillière 2014a, 2014b; Kloos 2017a). To some extent, such perspectives entail a shift of focus from remote villages and rural healers to urban laboratories, corporate offices, and state policies, constituting an important step from earlier approaches that studied Asian medicines mostly through the lens of “traditional culture.” Yet the industrialization and mainstreaming of Asian medicines remain partial and historically and structurally predicated on unofficial, noncapitalist, marginal actors and practices, whose agency, experiences, and narratives are easily overlooked in modern Asia, if not actively silenced. Indeed, despite a good corpus of work on “traditional medicine” in rural Asia, there are very few book-length ethnographies focusing on Asian medicine’s modern development outside the centers (e.g., Craig 2012; Pordié and Kloos forthcoming). As far as Tibetan medicine is concerned, Theresia Hofer’s outstanding book Medicine and Memory in Tibet not only identifies this gap, but also fills it with a perfectly balanced combination of rich ethnography, subaltern history, and anthropological analysis. Based on “officially unofficial” (22) fieldwork in an economically marginal part of the Tibetan Autonomous Region—rural Tsang, particularly Ngamring County—in 2003 (six weeks) and 2006–07 (three months, while based in Lhasa for one year), Medicine and Memory in Tibet offers an excellent historical-ethnographic account of Tibetan medicine’s development in Tibet from the 1940s to the present decade. What sets the book apart from the existing literature is its decentered and gender-sensitive
The recent emergence of Asian “traditional” medicines as increasingly popular medical, economic, ... more The recent emergence of Asian “traditional” medicines as increasingly popular medical, economic, and cultural resources in national and international health care policies has coincided with a renewed academic—especially medical anthropological—interest in the wider topic. The realization that medical traditions like Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, or Sowa Rigpa have—or are currently being—transformed into modern, innovative, and lucrative industries has opened up space for exciting new perspectives and research on medical history, global health, reformulation regimes, or pharmaceutical assemblages (e.g., Lei 2014; Pordié and Gaudillière 2014a, 2014b; Kloos 2017a). To some extent, such perspectives entail a shift of focus from remote villages and rural healers to urban laboratories, corporate offices, and state policies, constituting an important step from earlier approaches that studied Asian medicines mostly through the lens of “traditional culture.” Yet the industrialization and mainstreaming of Asian medicines remain partial and historically and structurally predicated on unofficial, noncapitalist, marginal actors and practices, whose agency, experiences, and narratives are easily overlooked in modern Asia, if not actively silenced. Indeed, despite a good corpus of work on “traditional medicine” in rural Asia, there are very few book-length ethnographies focusing on Asian medicine’s modern development outside the centers (e.g., Craig 2012; Pordié and Kloos forthcoming). As far as Tibetan medicine is concerned, Theresia Hofer’s outstanding book Medicine and Memory in Tibet not only identifies this gap, but also fills it with a perfectly balanced combination of rich ethnography, subaltern history, and anthropological analysis. Based on “officially unofficial” (22) fieldwork in an economically marginal part of the Tibetan Autonomous Region—rural Tsang, particularly Ngamring County—in 2003 (six weeks) and 2006–07 (three months, while based in Lhasa for one year), Medicine and Memory in Tibet offers an excellent historical-ethnographic account of Tibetan medicine’s development in Tibet from the 1940s to the present decade. What sets the book apart from the existing literature is its decentered and gender-sensitive
ASIAN MEDICINE:
CULTIVATING TRADITIONS AND THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBALISATION
The International Ass... more ASIAN MEDICINE: CULTIVATING TRADITIONS AND THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBALISATION
The International Association for the Study of Traditional Asian Medicine (IASTAM) meets every three years for an International Congress on Traditional Asian Medicine (ICTAM). Founded in 1979, IASTAM is the only international organisation in the field of Asian medicine making a serious attempt to embrace both academics and practitioners. It holds regional and international conferences (e.g. in Canberra in 1979, Surabaya in 1984, Bombay in 1990, Tokyo in 1994 and in Austin in 2006), publishes a regular newsletter, and produces the only peer reviewed academic journal in the field, Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity, published with Brill in Leiden.
The 2009 gathering of IASTAM, the Seventh Congress on Traditional Asian Medicine (ICTAM VII) was held in Thimphu, Bhutan, from September 7-11, 2009, hosted by the Institute for Traditional Medicine Services (ITMS), Royal Government of Bhutan.
The theme for the congress, ‘Asian Medicine: Cultivating Traditions and the Challenges of Globalization’, was positively received by both Bhutanese hosts and national and international participants enabling a wide variety of topics and issues being discussed. The congress brought about unique communications between scholars, scientists, policymakers and practitioner. We witnessed a growth in the range of topics and methodological approaches in the conferences’ schedule, from history, philology and religion to literature, Asian medical and biomedical practices and sciences, and from anthropology, art history, material culture, law to globalisation, gender studies and modernity.
With 200 participants in attendance, including practitioners and academics as well as private entrepreneurs and government civil servants from 30 countries, IASTAM as an organisation remains true to its ethos of being both international and interdisciplinary at its heart, as conceived of 30 years ago by Charles Leslie and A. L. Basham, the founders of IASTAM.
http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/histmedinmotion/
A workshop and film festival, training graduate students... more http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/histmedinmotion/ A workshop and film festival, training graduate students and faculty how to produce short video clips to present research.
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CULTIVATING TRADITIONS AND THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBALISATION
The International Association for the Study of Traditional Asian Medicine (IASTAM) meets every three years for an International Congress on Traditional Asian Medicine (ICTAM). Founded in 1979, IASTAM is the only international organisation in the field of Asian medicine making a serious attempt to embrace both academics and practitioners. It holds regional and international conferences (e.g. in Canberra in 1979, Surabaya in 1984, Bombay in 1990, Tokyo in 1994 and in Austin in 2006), publishes a regular newsletter, and produces the only peer reviewed academic journal in the field, Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity, published with Brill in Leiden.
The 2009 gathering of IASTAM, the Seventh Congress on Traditional Asian Medicine (ICTAM VII) was held in Thimphu, Bhutan, from September 7-11, 2009, hosted by the Institute for Traditional Medicine Services (ITMS), Royal Government of Bhutan.
The theme for the congress, ‘Asian Medicine: Cultivating Traditions and the Challenges of Globalization’, was positively received by both Bhutanese hosts and national and international participants enabling a wide variety of topics and issues being discussed. The congress brought about unique communications between scholars, scientists, policymakers and practitioner. We witnessed a growth in the range of topics and methodological approaches in the conferences’ schedule, from history, philology and religion to literature, Asian medical and biomedical practices and sciences, and from anthropology, art history, material culture, law to globalisation, gender studies and modernity.
With 200 participants in attendance, including practitioners and academics as well as private entrepreneurs and government civil servants from 30 countries, IASTAM as an organisation remains true to its ethos of being both international and interdisciplinary at its heart, as conceived of 30 years ago by Charles Leslie and A. L. Basham, the founders of IASTAM.
A workshop and film festival, training graduate students and faculty how to produce short video clips to present research.