The study of medical pluralism, characterised by the authoritative presence of the State in defining ‘legitimate’ inclusion and exclusion, has long been studied in medical anthropology. However, recent scholarship has begun to question this statist frame.
Local Health Traditions extends this discussion by focusing on the ‘marginal’ categories of medicine and healing that range from home remedies and herbal medicine to dais, bone-setters and spiritual healers. These different forms of medicine have recently come to be known as ‘local health traditions’ in the policy texts.
Academic scholarship on medical pluralism tends to focus more on ‘systems of medicine’, leaving out local health traditions that fall off the radar of ‘systems, science and state’. Turning the lens upside down, this book places local health traditions at the centre-stage of discussion to extend the debates on medical pluralism.
The contributors critically engage with
The book also studies the recent developments in policy literature: while the State has begun to address the need to revitalise local health traditions, market trends for natural, traditional remedies and products are now imposing another set of demands on these traditional practices.
Arima Mishra is Professor, Azim Premji University, Bangalore.
List of Abbreviations List of Tables, Images and Appendices Acknowledgements
Introduction Arima Mishra
PART I LEGITIMACY AND RECOGNITION
Chapter 1 - Authenticity, Alliances and Results: Notions of Legitimacy held by Traditional Healers in South India Devaki Nambiar, Arima Mishra, Harilal Madhavan, Sarika Kadam, Shrish N. R., Steffy Dhayalan and Pooja Venkatesh
Chapter 2 - Accreditation, Certification and Self-regulation: An Innovative Approach for Strengthening and Reintegrating Traditional Community Health Care Providers Unnikrishnan Payyappallimana, Hariramamurthi Govindaswamy, Sarin Sasikumar and Debjani Roy
Chapter 3 - Whom do the Rural Poor Consult for Health Care and How Much Do They Spend in India’s Pluralistic Health Care Arenas? Mark Nichter
Chapter 4 - Medical Pluralism and the Political Economy of Obstetric Care among Bangladeshi Women in Britain Sultana Mustafa Khanum
PART II DOCUMENTATION AND SYSTEMATISATION OF TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE
Chapter 5 - From Siddha Corpus to Siddha Medicine: Reflection on the Reduction of Siddha Knowledge through Exploration of Manuscripts Brigitte Sebastia
Chapter 6 - Family Repositories to ‘Knowledge Commons’: The Discourse of Documenting Local Health Traditions in Contemporary Kerala Harilal Madhavan and Praveen Lal
Chapter 7 - Documenting Folk Ayurvedic Knowledge in Uttarakhand: Insights from Critical Medical Anthropology Moe Nakazora
Chapter 8 - Documentation of Traditional Health Knowledge: To What End? Arima Mishra and Devaki Nambiar
PART III GENDER IN HEALING
Chapter 9 - Nested Marginalities: Women in Healing in South India Arima Mishra, Maya Annie Elias, Devaki Nambiar and Rajeev B. R.
Chapter 10 - Ritual Pollution and Women’s Blood: Listening to Dais Janet Chawla
Chapter 11 - Dais: Transforming the Traditions Renu Khanna
Chapter 12 - May the Vital Force be With You: An Indian Homeopathic Doctor’s Approach to the Gendered Ills of Our Time Cecilia Coale Van Hollen
Notes on the Contributors Index