Ethnomedicine

Download or read book Ethnomedicine written by Pamela I. Erickson and published by Waveland Press. This book was released on 2007-11-14 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 worlds vast and diverse medical systems, making ethnomedicine easier to internalize and to apply in clinical settings.