Unani Medicine in the Making: Practices and Representations in 21st-century India

Kira Schmidt-Stiedenroth

Published by Amsterdam University Press 2020

Unani Medicine in the Making

Practices and Representations in 21st-century India

Kira Schmidt-Stiedenroth

In the series Health, Medicine, and Science in Asia

Volume 1 in the series Social Studies in Asian Medicine

https://doi.org/10.1515/9789048544431

Overview
Contents

About this book

Unani Medicine in the Making examines the institutions and practices of Unani medicine, the Graeco-Islamic healing practice based on the humoral theory attributed to Hippocrates and officially recognized as a system of medicine in India. Drawing on diverse materials, including Urdu sources, interviews with practitioners, and observations in clinics, the book explores what Unani medicine is today by attending to its multiplicity, scrutinizing apparent tensions between the understanding of Unani as a system of medicine and its multiple enactments as Islamic medicine, medical science, or alternative medicine. Ethnographic details provide vivid descriptions of the current practice of Unani in India, and invite readers to rethink the idea that humoral medicine is incommensurable with modern medicine and science, and that the modernization of Asian medicines invariably leads to their biomedicalization. Ultimately, the book also discusses the relationship of Unani with Muslim communities, examining the growing practice of Prophetic Medicine in Urban India and increasing representations of Unani as Islamic Medicine.

Author / Editor information

Schmidt-Stiedenroth Kira :

Kira Schmidt Stiedenroth is assistant professor of Anthropology at the South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University, where she coordinates the Master’s program ‘Health and Society in South Asia’. Her teaching and research interests lie mainly in medical anthropology, with a particular focus on the anthropology of drugs and pharmaceuticals, South Asian healing practices, and (forced) migration studies.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	1
Table of Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	5
Acknowledgements Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
1. A System of Medicine? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
2. Authority, Originality, and the Limits of Standardization Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	81
3. Beyond Humouralism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	121
4. The Appropriation of Modern Scientific Advances and Concepts Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
5. Science and the Quest for Acceptance and Recognition Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
6. Unani Medicine and Muslims in India Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	227
Summary and Reflexions for Future Engagement Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	279

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 284
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 6
Keywords: Unani medicine; ethnography; Asian medicine; practice ontology; Islamic medicine.

eBook

Published: July 20, 2020
ISBN: 9789048544431