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The health transition, global modernity and the crisis of traditional medicine: the Tibetan case

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  • Janes, Craig R.

Abstract

The epidemiologic and demographic consequences of the health transition, coupled with worldwide pressures for health care reform according to neoliberal tenets, will create new opportunities, and well as new problems, for organized systems of indigenous medicine. Spiraling costs of biomedically-based health care, coupled with an increasing global burden of chronic, degenerative diseases and mental disorder, will produce significant incentives for the expansion of indigenous alternatives. Yet this expansion will be accompanied by pressures to rationalize and modernize health care services according to the structurally dominant scientific paradigm. Without concerted effort to maintain native epistemologies, indigenous medical systems face an inevitable slide into narrow herbal traditions and a loss of those elements of diagnosis and therapy which may be the most valuable and effective. Analyzing the case of Tibetan medicine and other Asian medical systems, I show how this process occurs and how it is resisted. I conclude by discussing the policy dimensions of this problem.

Suggested Citation

  • Janes, Craig R., 1999. "The health transition, global modernity and the crisis of traditional medicine: the Tibetan case," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 48(12), pages 1803-1820, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:48:y:1999:i:12:p:1803-1820
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    Cited by:

    1. Schensul, Stephen L. & Mekki-Berrada, Abdelwahed & Nastasi, Bonnie & Saggurti, Niranjan & Verma, Ravi K., 2006. "Healing traditions and men's sexual health in Mumbai, India: The realities of practiced medicine in urban poor communities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(11), pages 2774-2785, June.
    2. Spicer, Neil J., 2005. "Sedentarization and children's health: Changing discourses in the northeast Badia of Jordan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(10), pages 2165-2176, November.
    3. Ijaz, Nadine & Boon, Heather & Muzzin, Linda & Welsh, Sandy, 2016. "State risk discourse and the regulatory preservation of traditional medicine knowledge: The case of acupuncture in Ontario, Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 97-105.
    4. Chung, Vincent C.H. & Hillier, Sheila & Lau, Chun Hong & Wong, Samuel Y.S. & Yeoh, Eng Kiong & Griffiths, Sian M., 2011. "Referral to and attitude towards traditional Chinese medicine amongst western medical doctors in postcolonial Hong Kong," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 247-255, January.
    5. Gilbert, Tal & Gilbert, Leah, 2004. "Globalisation and local power: influences on health matters in South Africa," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 245-255, March.
    6. Kloos, Stephan & Madhavan, Harilal & Tidwell, Tawni & Blaikie, Calum & Cuomu, Mingji, 2020. "The transnational Sowa Rigpa industry in Asia: New perspectives on an emerging economy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    7. P. M. Amegbor, 2017. "An Assessment of Care-Seeking Behavior in Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa District: A Triple Pluralistic Health Sector Approach," SAGE Open, , vol. 7(2), pages 21582440177, June.

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