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Sociétés et médecines en Asie du Sud
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Newsletter
The Societies and Medicines in South Asia Newsletter is published biannually. It contains detailed presentations of the events held in the framework of the programme, as well as research highlights, information on new books, and a number of other regular rubrics. Enjoy reading...
Objectives
Medicines, and more generally the means of which people avail to prevent, relieve or heal suffering and disease are formed, transformed and reformed in the field of health and beyond. The constitution of therapeutic spaces appears as the product of social and political combinations, of historical conjunctures, of encounters between people and representations, between ideologies and ideals.
This research programme thus examines health and healing, giving particular attention to their social and political dynamics. The general objective of the programme is to understand how contemporary therapeutic spaces are constructed, identified and legitimated.
The Phase I of the programme (Jan. 2004- Aug. 2008) has explored the political dimensions of health along seven research axis. Dowload the detailed programme and individual research abstracts (.pdf).
This collective work allowed the definition of the Phase II of the programme (Sept. 2008 - August 2010), which covers three interrelated domains.
- Axis 1 : Medical and wellness tourism
- Axis 2 : Commoditization and transnationalisation of Asian medicine
- Axis 3 : Past and present innovations in medicine
The analytic baseline is concerned with the national and transnational flows of people, ideas, practices, techniques and technologies.
Materials and methods
The program is conducted with a comparative approach between diverse regions that are characterized by heterogeneous socio-historical contexts. It is mainly focused in India. The research undertaken is of a multidisciplinary nature and gathers scientists from disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, political and legal sciences, geography, history, indology and Sanskrit studies, ecology and ethnobotany.
Programme Life Update at the Institute
- News
Calum Blaikie was awarded an Honourable Mention in the Charles Leslie Prize for the best paper by a young scholar, during the 6th Congress of the International Association for the Study of Traditional Asian Medicine (IASTAM), Timphu, 2009.
Laurent Pordié received the ICAS Book Prize 2009, Colleague Choice Award, for his book Tibetan Medicine in the Contemporary World (Routledge, 2008), during a ceremony held in August at the 6th Congress of the International Convention of Asian Scholar in Korea.
Brigitte Sébastia interviewed by The Times of India, after the release of her latest book Restoring Mental Health in India (Oxford University Press, 2009).
- Latest events
"Pharmasud Workshop - Pharmaceutical Innovations in the Ayurvedic Industry", organised at the FIP on Februrary 9-10, 2010.
- 2010 Lecture series
Upcoming
"Notes on a Book Project : Buddhist Nuns, Avalokitesvara and the Religious Implications of Illness", by Ivette Vargas (Austin College), 19 March.
Past
"The imprint of religious culture on the use of pharmaceuticals and medical prescriptions", by Sylvie Fainzang (INSERM, Paris), 11 February.
"Science between Mission, Commerce and Tamil Society : The doctor of the Danish-Halle Mission in Tranquebar, ca. 1730-1766", by Niklas Thode Jensen (European University Institute, Florence), 25 January.
Click to download the complete list of lectures (2004-2009).
Scroll down the page to see the conferences and workshops held in the framework of the programme.
Research / Team
| Programme Leader | Laurent Pordié (FIP / Univ. of Heidelberg) |
- Axis 1 : Medical and wellness tourism
This research axis addresses the fast growing sector of medical and wellness tourism in India. It attempts to understand the ways by which India is promoted as a global health care destination, and focuses on the social and cultural encounters which prevail in the health tourism industry. This project is conducted in close collaboration with the Cluster of Excellence "Asia & Europe" at the University of Heidelberg.
| Research Fellows | Laurent Pordié, Anthropology (FIP / Univ. of Heidelberg) The encounters of health tourism in India : Cross-borders patients and the dynamics of healthcare Harilal Madhavan, Economics (FIP) Value Chains and Cultural Economics of a Global Product : Ayurvedic Health Tourism in Kerala |
| Associate Researcher | Burton Cleetus, Modern History (Univ. of Calicut /FIP) In Search of a tradition : Leisure, Ayurvedic healthcare and trans-national flows in Kerala, 1870-1990 |
| PhD Candidate |
Christoph Cyranski, Anthropology (University of Heidelberg) Oil Massages, Purges and Backwater Cruises : Ayurvedic Health Tourism in Kerala, South India |
| MA Candidate |
Krystelle Betat, Geography (University of Bordeaux) Ayurvedic tourism in Pondicherry Morganne Terret, Geography (Uppsala University) |
- Axis 2 : Commoditization and transnationalisation of Asian medicine
This research axis examines the entire chain pertaining to the commoditization of medicine, from the collection of wild plants and the cultivation of plants to the industrialization of drugs to the national and international commercialization and diffusion of indigenous medicines.
| Associate Researchers | Florian Besch, Anthropology (Univ. of Heidelberg) The diffusion of Tibetan medicine Masato Kasezawa, Anthropology (National Museum of Ethnology, Japan) N. Lalitha, Economics (Gujarat Institute of Development Research) |
| PhD Candidates |
Calum Blaikie, Anthropology (University of Kent) Moral economies, the commoditisation of materia medica and Tibetan medicine in Ladakh, India Lucie Dejouhanet, Geography (FIP/ University of Paris X– Nanterre) Stephan Kloos, Anthropology (University of California at San Francisco & Berkeley) Mihaela Paina, Anthropology (University of Heidelberg) |
- Axis 3 : Past and present innovations in medicine
This research axis examines the historical and contemporary fluidity and dynamism of medicine in India, by using therapeutic innovation as a port of entry. Innovation may concern the currents of tradition in medicine, the schools of thought, the nature of training and curricula, the emergence of new galenic forms and pharmaceutical formulas, the appropriation of biomedical instrumentation and concepts, or again clinical trials.
| Research Fellows | Brigitte Sébastia, Anthropology (IFP / LISST / CEIAS) Traditional medicine and metabolic diseases. Innovation to face increasing needs |
| Associate Researchers | Gabi Alex, Anthropology (University of Gottingen) Balancing and innovating in the Narikorava (Vagri) healing practices in Tamil Nadu Niklas T. Jensen, History (University of Copenhagen) Fabrizio Speziale, History (Pontifica Università Gregoriana, Roma / Institut Français de Recherche en Iran, Teheran) Dominik Wujastyk, Indology (Wellcome Trust Centre at University College London) Ines G. Županov, history (EHESS-CNRS) |
| PhD Candidates |
Marion Delpeu, Anthropology (University of Bordeaux) Children of AIDS. Social and medical innovation in healthcare in South India Ritika Ganguli, Anthropology (University of Minnesota) Roman Sieler, Anthropology (University of Heidelberg) |
Find here the past fellows of the programme
Partners
Academic Institutions :
- Paul Cézanne University (CReCSS), Aix-Marseille
- South Asia Institute, Heidelberg
- Gujarat Institute of Development Research
- Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), Paris
- Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi
Professional Bodies :
Non governmental institutions :
Funding
- French Institute of Pondicherry
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR), France
- Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie
- French Minsitry of Foreign Affairs (IFRE’s Tranversal programme / Coord. South African Center)
- Individual Scholarships
Main Outputs
Organization of International Seminars
- "Pharmasud Workshop #1 - Pharmaceutical Innovations in the Ayurvedic Industry", organised by the FIP and the CERMES, funded by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Pondicherry, February 9-10, 2010.
- "Medical and Wellness Tourism : Studies from Asia and Europe", Panel organised during the 6th Congress of the International Convention of Asian Scholars, Daejeon, Korea, 6-9 August 2009.
- "Making India a Global health Care Destination. Historical and Anthropological Enquiries on Cross-border Healthcare", International Workshop co-organised by the FIP and the Cluster ’Asia-Europe’ in Heidelberg. To be held in Heidelberg on 14 and 15 June 2009.
- "The Commercialization of Local Knowledge”, International Conference co-organised by the FIP, the University of Warwick and the Centre d’études de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud (CEIAS), held in Pondicherry, 5-6 November 2008.
- "Medicine and Religion in South Asia. Interactions between scholarly traditions and local practices”, International Workshop co-organised by FIP, The Centre d’études de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud (CEIAS) and the Institute of Advanced Studies, Paris, held in Paris, 20 May 2008.
- "Faults and Flaws. Therapeutic Practices Against the Norm in South Asia”, International Colloquium organised by FIP and The Centre d’études de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud (CEIAS), held in Pondicherry, 7-9 March 2008.
- "EHESS Summer School in Pondy”, FIP and Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), to be held in Pondicherry, 27 February - 7 March 2008.
- “The Exploration of Homeopathy from Europe to Asia”, , FIP and the University of Louvain, to be held in Louvain, Belgium, in November 2007.
- “Therapeutic Knowledge and Medicinal Materials in the Tibetan World. Perspectives in Social Sciences”, FIP - Nomad Research Unit, EHESS - Toulouse, October 2007.
- “Asian Medicine Today. Trans-nationalisation of practices and re-localisation of knowledge”, proposed by the FIP and organized by the Réeseau-Asie (CNRS-IMASIE), September 2007.
- "Siddha Medicine : Historical, Social and Medical Perspectives”, funded and organised by the FIP, August 2007.
- “The institutionalization of therapeutic practices in India. Social and legal perspectives”, organised by the FIP and GIDR, funded by the Transveral programmes of the UMIFRE, December 2006.
- “Soundings in the Contemporary Fashions of Medicines in India”, organised and funded by the FIP, October 2005.
- “Mirrored Views on Healing Systems in India. Merging Policies, Politics and Practices”, co-organised by the FIP and FRLHT, funded by the FIP and Nomad RSI, April 2004.
Various publications
- Restoring Mental Health in India. Pluralistic Therapies and Concepts.
Edited by Brigitte Sébastia, Oxford University Press, 2009, viii, 318 p.
Langue : Anglais. 795 Rs
Les articles de cet ouvrage explorent trois catégories de thérapies utilisées pour traiter les troubles mentaux, des maladies sévères telles que psychoses ou mania aux troubles dépressifs ou traumatiques. La première partie est consacrée aux thérapies codifiées indiennes siddha, ayurveda, et yoga, la seconde discute le rôle thérapeutique des sanctuaires et des figures religieuses, et la troisième se concentre sur la psychiatrie et la psychanalyse en Inde à partir de sources historiques et ethnographiques.
Un important consensus émerge des divers points of vue exposés par les auteurs. Il affirme qu’une approche cohérente de la santé mentale en Inde doit prendre en compte l’environnement culturel et holistique ; celle-ci inclut la religion, la politique de la santé, et les conceptions indiennes sur la maladie mentale et le bien-être.
Les auteurs des articles de l’ouvrage sont : Pilar Galiana Abal, Renu Addlakha, C. Kumar Babu, Gilles Bibeau & Ellen Corin, Marine Carrin, Nadia Giguère, Florence Halder, Sanjeev Jain & Pratima Murthy, Jean Nimylowycz, Brigitte Sébastia et O. Somasundaram.
Mots-clefs : Siddha, Ayurveda, yoga, psychiatrie, psychanalyse, thérapie religieux, maladie mentale
- Divins remèdes. Médecine et religion en Asie du Sud
Edited by Ines Zupanov and Caterina Guenzi, Paris, Editions de l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Collection Purusartha 27), 2008.
Language : French and English.
This volume explores different forms of interaction between medicine and religion as seen both in scholarly traditions and local practices of South Asia. The objective of this interdisciplinary work is to focus on the intricate and sometimes conflicting connections between medicines and cosmologies, healers and priests, remedies and rituals in different historical and regional contexts.
The studies composing the volume are based on a vast range of textual and ethnographic materials – including medical and tantric treatises, missionary archives, dreams or ex-voto narratives, possession cults, astrological counselling, and healing rituals. By considering the religious and cosmological aspects of medical theories and practices, as well as the therapeutic aspects of devotional and ritual practices, the authors show how the different forms of interactions between medicine and religion reflect the complex systems of relationships between social groups in South Asia.
Keywords : Medicine, religion, South Asia, scholarly traditions, local knowledge
- Good Deaths, Bad Deaths. Anthropological Perspectives on Death and Dying. Special issue of Curare 31(2)
Edited by Gabriele Alex and Suzette Heald, 2008.
Language : English
The question of a ‘good’ death as opposed to a ‘bad’ one provides for a critical exploration and synthesis of changing attitudes to death cross-culturally. What can transform a bad death into a good one and what moral terrain does it serve to define ? Mortuary rituals have long been an interest of anthropologists for the way they illuminate cultural values. This formal dimension of death in recent work has been over-ridden by a concern with the more subjective aspects of dying and the choices available to individuals. Two, opposed trajectories can here be seen to meet. On the one hand, there has been the development of new medical technologies with their promise of overcoming death. On the other hand, terrorism, on-going wars, third world poverty and the HIV/AIDS pandemic have ensured that, untimely death is not just a newspaper headline but an issue that reaches all. Suicide highlights attitudes towards death and the subjective choice of dying. It further illuminates cultural virtues which are expressed in responses to suicide, in the ways how people discuss and evaluate a suicide.
This volume covers three main themes. Firstly, the way in which the medicalisation of death in the developed world has produced new institutional ways of ‘managing’ death and a new lexicon to go with it. Secondly, the varied meanings and responses to suicide and self-killing are examined in different cultural contexts. Lastly, this issue turns to the responses to death when populations are faced by a pandemic such as AIDS.
Keywords : Medical anthropology, death and dying, HIV/AIDS, suicide, medicalisation
- Tibetan Medicine in the Contemporary World. Global Politics of Medical Knowledge and Practice
Edited by Laurent Pordié, foreword by Margaret Lock, London and New York, Routledge, 2008.
Language : English.
Winner of the
ICAS Book Prize 2009
The logics of the neo-liberal economy, modern institutionalization, state-controlled policies, biomedicalization, and the renewed aspirations of the practitioners have brought about a dramatic change in medical provision on the national level and an unprecedented expansion on the international level. This volume offers a comprehensive reading of contemporary Tibetan medical knowledge and practices by considering both the reasons that have led to their diversity and by bringing out the common orientations of this medical system. The specialist authors brought together in this book examine the social, political and identity dynamics of various forms of ‘Tibetan medicine’ and post-modern medical pluralism, based upon multisided research conducted in Nepal, India, Tibet and Mainland China, in Mongolia and in the West. This collective reflection refreshes the contemporary understandings of scholarly Asian medicines in their global context.
Keywords : Tibetan medicine, modern institutionalisation, politics of knowledge, therapeutic globalization
- Ethnographic Humanism : Migrant Experiences in the Quest for Well-Being, Special issue of Anthropology in Action 14(1&2)
Edited by Robin Oakley and Anne Sigfrid Grøsneth, Paris, Oxford and New York, Berghahn Publishers, 2007.
Language : English.
The articles in this volume reinforce the power of ethnographic humanism, of "anthropology in action". The focus is on the relationship between macro political forces and their influence on the varied experiences of health in advanced industrial capitalist contexts. Our approach views migrants as capable agents negotiating new lives for themselves and confronting the challenges they face. We strongly advocate socially informed policy that offers a minimum recognition to migrants as full fledged members of the new society that they have voluntarily or involuntarily migrated to. We are especially interested in health and well-being as analytical tools for understanding the contradictions and tensions immigrants face in regard to staying or leaving, as well as in feelings of identity and belonging. How do nation-state, market and capital interact in providing and/or denying access to social arenas that supply a minimum of social human recognition, which are critical to experiences of illness, well-being and joy ? The contributions in this volume emphasise ethnographic practice as an important policy tool to understand meanings, experiences and practices of immigrants as they attempt to make themselves at home in Western settings.
Keywords : Migration, health, well-being
- Les rondes de saint Antoine. Culte, affliction et possession en Inde du Sud
Brigitte Sébastia, Paris, Aux Lieux d’Etre, 2007.
Language : French. 30 Euros.
The handling of psychogenic disorders and the « indigenisation » of catholic practices in Indian society are at the heart of this book. It presents the study of a sanctuary in South India dedicated to the Portuguese Saint, Anthony de Padua, who holds functions of divine descent and the ability to exorcise. Pilgrims and Indian catholic patients meet there, and make devotional and ritualistic gestures inspired by Hinduism.
These rituals are informal because, in this country, the clergy is opposed to exorcism practices. On the contrary, they are scrupulously observed by families who accompany patients suspected of being victims of possession. Relations have a central role in the therapeutic process. They base themselves on different elements in order to demonstrate the supernatural origin of the ailments. The family then puts pressure on the patient and physically abuses him in order for him to subsequently manifest his possession, which thus proves the diagnostic correct. According to the nature of the ailments, the patient can submit to the relations’ will. This first experience often marks the beginning of a long series of possessions, more and more frequent and violent.
Keywords : Possession, sorcery, indigenisation of Christianism, psychiatry, Siddha medicine, India
- Ethnography of Healing, Special issue of the Indian Anthropologist 37(1)
Edited by Laurent Pordié, New Delhi,
Journal of the Indian Anthropological Association, 2007.
Language : English. 1500 Rs
The anthropology of health practices classically included in the category of “folk healing” is one of the neglected areas of the discipline in India. Social scientists do not give them the same attention as scholarly medical traditions. Usually located in villages “folk healers” are, however, regularly frequented by the general population. This situation contrasts again very strongly with the national health policies that accord no or very little attention to these therapists.
This special issue of the Indian Anthropologist is intended as a contribution to the definition and study of folk therapeutic practices. A series of articles of an essentially ethnographic nature explores their implication in the process of Indian modernity. Three themes bind the articles together : the social role of the healers and the social functions of healing processes, the presence of the religious and its normative dimension on the practice of medicine, and the importance of healing in group identity.
Keywords : Folk healing, illness, India, religion
- Les médecines en parallèle
Edited by Olivier Schmitz, Paris : Karthala, 2006, 279 p.
Language : French. 25 €
Despite the authority biomedicine displays for treating illnesses in contemporary western societies, a growing part of their population now have recourse to other therapeutic methods. What does this multitude of healthcare practices called « alternative », « parallel » or even « natural », mean to the public and the practitioners ? Are they, as has been said of the art of traditional healers, the missing part of biomedicine, which has, in its historical development, progressively separated the social from the biological, the material from the spiritual ? The chapters which make up this volume, provide answers to these queries, by offering singular and previously unpublished studies of a sample of « different » healing practices such as yoga, Qigong, geobiology, magnotherapy or shamanism. Social sciences specialists subsequently point out to the remarkable plasticity in the field of healthcare practices, and offer some analysis. Les médecines en parallèle sheds light on these medical alternatives and on the profound social reorganizations of which they are the reflection.
Keywords : Alternative medicines, trans-nationalisation of practices, social change
- Soigner par l’invisible. Enquête sur les guérisseurs aujourd’hui
Olivier Schmitz, Paris : Imago, 2006
Language : French. 25 €
In spite of the success of biomedicine, there are many other healing practices living and developing today which are based upon the manipulation of certain “forces”, spirits, waves or energies. Who are the practitioners of these therapeutic forms and who are their clients ? What are the representations of disease and of the body that animate these therapeutic practices ? Over the course of a long period of field study, the author considered these therapies, which attribute the origins of the sickness and misfortune of individuals to the invisible world : cults based on saints and trees that heal, pilgrimages to springs and fountains, magicians, sorcerers, radiesthesists and geobiologists. The picture that emerges from this is one of a popular form of urban medicine, in which practitioners ground the legitimacy of their magico-religious discourse on disease and its causes on the advances of science and technology. Through participating in consultations, observing the stages of treatment and collecting experiences from the healers and their patients, the author has uncovered, at the very heart of our modern society, a magical universe in which our contemporaries attempt to find meaning and relief from their suffering.
Keywords : syncretic healers, West, magic
- Panser le monde, penser les médecines. Traditions médicales et développement sanitaire.
Edited by Laurent Pordié, Paris, Karthala, 2005, 326 p.
Language : French. 25 €
How do healing traditions transform health development ? Vice versa, what role does healthcare development have in the dynamics of vernacular therapeutic practices and knowledge ?
The essays gathered in this volume, provide answers to these twin questions, by inviting the reader to explore the social dimension of international health programmes. This book thereby examines the contexts, practices and the social impact of development, and the ways in which medicines are manifested in it, categorised, taken care of, standardized or rendered invisible.
Health development programmes always concern healing traditions, in some way or another, directly or indirectly. This ineluctable encounter is, however, often ignored by healthcare planners. It has social and medical consequences that should yet be thoroughly taken into account to make health development a more balanced practice. The reader will find in this volume essential analytical tools for that purpose. Combining contextualised accounts and anthropological analysis, Panser le monde, penser les médecines precisely insists on the necessity of understanding the world before trying to heal it.
Keywords : Health, healing traditions, medical pluralism, international development
- Himalayan Medicinal and Aromatic Plants. Balancing Use and Conservation
Edited by Yildis Thomas et al., Kathmandu,
NMFSC-WWF-UNESCO-IDRC, 2005. 558 p.
Language : English.
The rapid expansion of the commercial use of Himalayan medicinal and aromatic plants at the regional and international levels represents a threat to the Environment. Moreover, commercial practices generally do not consider the local social and cultural importance of these resources. Increasing market and economic forces often leads to unsustainable commercial harvesting, to which an immediate alternative must be found so as to preserve the fragile Himalayan diversity. This book addresses these issues through exploring existing environment management possibilities and providing new approaches pertaining to plants domestication, cultivation and commercialisation. It also examines the use of plants use by various knowledge holders, such as traditional healers. This volume gathers papers issuing from social sciences researches and conservation programmes in Himalayan Nepal, India, Pakistan, and China. Sustainable extraction of resource and income generating system for the local community do not necessarily stand in opposition to each other ; they must be thought carefully though, not to foster current environmental degradation.
Keywords : Trans-Himalayan medicinal plants, conservation, commercialisation, socioeconomic change, healers
- Tibetan Medicine Among the Buddhist Dards of Ladakh
Stephan Kloos, Wien : Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und
Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2004, 188 p.
Language : English (limited edition, out of stock).
What is the social role of practitioners of Tibetan medicine (amchi) in rural Ladakh in the 21st century ? What are the effects, on society and traditional medicine, of new roads, a changing economy, increasing political links to distant centers, and heavy militarization in the wake of a recent conflict with Pakistan ? This book provides a case study of a remote village, Hanu Gongma, and its most influential amchi in recent times, to shed light on the establishment and change of Tibetan medicine in an Indo-Aryan minority community in Ladakh. The first section deals with the local history of Hanu and the introduction and practice of Tibetan medicine there since at least the 19th century. Tracing four generations of amchi, a detailed portrait of the present clinical situation and the role of Tibetan medicine in Hanu Gongma is given. This leads to an analysis of Hanu’s most important amchi’s unique role in mediating the socio-economic and medical changes in the village since the 1970s, and the ambivalent effects on both the health of the village, local Tibetan medicine, and himself. The author argues that at the heart of the successful practice of Tibetan medicine lies a dialectic relationship between social and medical power, which has to be renegotiated and re-established in the context of modernity.
Keywords : Tibetan medicine, social role of the healer, Ladakh
- The expression of religion in Tibetan medicine. Ideal conceptions, contemporary practices and political use
Laurent Pordié, 2003, 83 p. (PPSS n°29)
Language : English. 150 Rs (5 €)
What place does religion today assume in the lives of the Ladakhi practitioners of Tibetan medicine (amchi) ? And, how does medicine, as a social institution, negotiate its relationship to religion ? The author addresses these questions by singling out two vantages of observation : institutionalization and the voluntary sector, after having defined the ideal religious frame putatively surrounding medicine according to the amchi’s representations. Contrasting the desire for scientificity that characterizes Tibetan medicine institutions and the political use of religion by healers’ associations, this volume sheds light on central aspects of the contemporary construction of Tibetan medicine in Ladakh.
Keywords : Anthropology, Tibetan medicine, religion, science, development
Dernier ajout : 10 mars 2010.