Panel at EASA Conference, Bristol, UK, September 2006

[Guest guest]

A panel on " Ethnographies of medical encounters between Europe and

Asia " is being convened by Mona Schrempf and Geoffrey Samuel at the

European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) conference in

Bristol this year (18-21 September 2006). Anyone interested in taking

part is invited to contact Geoffrey at <SamuelG or Mona

at <schrempm

 

The conference website and call for papers are at

http://www.nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa06/index.htm

 

The deadline for papers is May 1st 2006. The panel abstract is given

below.

 

Geoffrey

 

* * *

 

W006 Ethnographies of medical encounters between Europe and Asia

 

Convenors: Mona Schrempf (Central Asian Seminar, Institute for Asian

and African Studies, Humboldt-Universit�t zu Berlin)

mona.schrempf,

Geoffrey Samuel (Cardiff University) SamuelG

 

Cross-cultural transactions between European and Asian medical systems

entail complex processes of transfer, adaptation and integration. Only

recently, they have become the object of academic inquiry in medical

anthropology and social sciences in general. Whereas the medical

sciences are usually most interested in the practical application of

medicine, such as in clinical trials, and issues of efficacy,

standardisation and quality control of Asian traditional medicine,

anthropologists look for social and cultural constructions in these

encounters between West and East, Europe and Asia. Thus, in Europe we

experience a growing interest in Asian medicines and the testing of

their efficacy through clinical trials modelled on biomedical

standards. Yet, at the same time, market demands foster a

commodification of authentic Asian or Oriental medicines in Europe,

transforming them into important techniques for wellness, esoteric and

other therapeutic means that are usually removed from their original

philosophical roots and emic empirical frameworks. Ayurvedic massage,

acupuncture and more recently Tibetan medicine thus became alternative

medicines in the West, or so-called CAMs (complementary alternative

medicine). On the one hand, market demands in Europe also shape Asian

medical production policies and techniques influencing local medical

contexts, but on the other, biomedicine dominates both European and

Asian medical contexts in various ways. We would like to encourage

contributions that specifically use the method of ethnography to

elucidate the complexity of these medical encounters between Europe

and Asia.