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Ethnomedicine

Pamela I. Erickson

People throughout time and place, no matter their belief system, have sought to discover causes and cures for illness and disease. Among Westerners is a groundswell to augment biomedicine with holistic practices inherent in ethnomedicines of non-Western traditions. Yet missing are awareness and knowledge of the foundations and outgrowth of these alternative concepts.

Erickson fills this gap by clearly explaining the basic organizing principles that underlie all medical systems, the full range of theories of disease causation, the geographical distribution of medical practices, and the historical trends that led to biomedical dominance. Her efficient, balanced approach highlights commonalities among the world’s vast and diverse medical systems, making ethnomedicine easier to internalize and to apply in clinical settings.

$13.95 list, 124 pages

10-digit ISBN: 1-57766-521-X

13-digit ISBN: 978-1-57766-521-2

© 2008

Table of Contents

1. What Is Ethnomedicine?

Anthropology and Ethnomedicine / Medical Systems / Health: Disease and Curing, Illness and Healing

2. Historical Origins of Medical Systems

Medical Systems and Subsistence Strategies / The Great Historical Medical Traditions / Comparison of the Great Medical Traditions

3. What Causes Disease?: Theories of Disease Causation

Personalistic and Naturalistic Disease Causation / Common Theories of Disease Causation in Nonbiomedical Systems

4. The Geography of Disease Causation Theories

Theories of Disease/Illness Causation in the Ethnographic Past / Contemporary Trends in Theories of Disease Causation / The Culture-Bound Syndromes

5. The Healing Lessons of Ethnomedicine

What Do Ethnomedicines Tell Us? / What Do the Ethnomedicine Lessons Mean for Cultural Competence in Biomedical Care? / The Future of Ethnomedicines