The basic premise of the paper is that Western medicine’ sco-opting of specific technologies and materials from other (indigenous) medical traditions,stripped of the original theories underlying their use, has problematic consequences for the practitioners and patients of both source and recipient traditions.The paper begins by illustrating the historical continuity of this process by way of an example from India’s colonialera.The fact that specific practices or materials are regarded as biomedically useful because they ‘work’ (are efficacious) does not mean that the ‘traditional’ theories underlying them are seen as correct.
Of spineless babies and folic acid : Evidence and efficacy in biomedicine and ayurvedic medicine
by Harish Naraindas, Social Science & Medicine, 18 January, 1996
Of spineless babies and folic acid : Evidence and efficacy in biomedicine and ayurvedic medicine
by Harish Naraindas, Social Science & Medicine, 18 January, 1996 