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Remodeling the Arsenal of Chinese Medicine: Shared Pasts, Alternative Futures

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  • Volker Scheid

    (School of Oriental and African Studies, London)

Abstract

The discourse on alternative medicine assumes that medical practices exist as distinctive medical systems that compete with each other in plural health care systems. Anthropological and historical research clearly demonstrates, however, that this is not so. Many so-called traditional medicines are revealed as inventions of distinctly modern regimes of knowledge and institutional practice, while the political needs of healers and the epistemological desires of researchers converge in the construction of distinctive medical practices for description, classification, and comparison. This article draws on genealogy as a possible way out of this impasse. It shows how different generations of physicians of Chinese medicine employed the same four core concepts to reflect on their practice, imbuing them with ever new meanings to relate them to the changing demands of clinical and political practice. Examining these core concepts reveals something about the essence of Chinese medicine without reducing our analysis to a misguided search for cultural essences.

Suggested Citation

  • Volker Scheid, 2002. "Remodeling the Arsenal of Chinese Medicine: Shared Pasts, Alternative Futures," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 583(1), pages 136-159, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:583:y:2002:i:1:p:136-159
    DOI: 10.1177/000271620258300109
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Farquhar, Judith, 1987. "Problems of knowledge in contemporary Chinese medical discourse," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 24(12), pages 1013-1021, January.
    2. Baer, Hans A. & Jen, Cindy & Tanassi, Lucia M. & Tsia, Christopher & Wahbeh, Helen, 0. "The drive for professionalization in acupuncture: A preliminary view from the San Francisco Bay area," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 46(4-5), pages 533-537, February.
    3. Baer, Hans A. & Hays, John & McClendon, Nicole & McGoldrick, Neil & Vespucci, Raffella, 1998. "The holistic health movement in the San Francisco Bay Area: Some preliminary observations," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 47(10), pages 1495-1501, November.
    4. Craig, David, 2000. "Practical logics: the shapes and lessons of popular medical knowledge and practice -- examples from Vietnam and Indigenous Australia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 51(5), pages 703-711, September.
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