CULANTH 424K: Medical Anthropology: Traditional Medicine

Three basic principles:

1. The body is a holistic system, in which each part influences the health of the others,
2. This system is predicated on the continuing balance of yin and yang in the body
3. The body itself is dependent on a greater relationship with its environment

https://www.coursera.org/course/sjtubm901

Traditional Medicine is the sum total of the knowledge, skills, and practices based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness.

NEW! WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy: 2014-2023

More information here.

Journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine: from 2005 to present in BioMedCentral

Studies on ethno-medicine: rom 2007 to present in Directory of Open Access Journals

• Balick, M. J. (2006). Ethnomedicine. Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing, 2(3), 238-248.

• Neumann, A. K., & Lauro, P. (1982). Ethnomedicine and biomedicine linking. Social Science & Medicine, 16(21), 1817-1824.

• Piekielek, J. (2009). Revitalization of ethnomedicine in cuba. Current Anthropology, 50(3), 278.

• Tan, Z., Chang, Y., Liu, J., Chang, X., & Zhang, Y. (2013). Ethnomedicine: Fading or flowering? -- heritage and development of dai medicine. Journal of Medical Colleges of PLA, 28(1), 54.