tailieunhanh - The Efficacy of Traditional Medicine: Current Theoretical and Methodological Issues

Evolutionary biology is an essential basic science for medicine, but few doctors and medical researchers are familiar with its most relevant principles. Most medical schools have geneticists who understand evolution, but few have even one evolutionary biologist to suggest other possible applications. The canyon between evolutionary biology and medicine is wide. The question is whether they offer each other enough to make bridge building worthwhile. What bene- fits could be expected if evolution were brought fully to bear on the problems of medicine? How would studying medical problems advance evolutionary research? Do doctors need to learn evolution, or is it valuable mainly for researchers? What practical steps will promote. | James B. Waldram Department of Psychology University of Saskatchewan The Efficacy of Traditional Medicine Current Theoretical and Methodological Issues The efficacy of traditional medicine is an issue that continues to vex medical anthropology. This article critically examines how the efficacy of traditional medicine has been conceived operationalized and studied and argues that a consensus remains elusive. Efficacy must be seen as fluid and shifting the product of a negotiated but not necessarily shared understanding by those involved in the sickness episode including physi-cians healers patients and members of the community. Medical anthropology needs to return to the field to gather more data on indigenous understandings of efficacy to counteract the biases inherent in the utilization of biomedical understandings and methods characteristic of much previous work. traditional medicine efficacy indigenous peoples Native Americans Medical anthropology continues to be vexed by the issue of the efficacy of ưaditional medical systems and practices. On the one hand ethnographic narratives describing healing practices among peoples throughout the world often implicitly suggest that such practices work without detailing just what that means. On the other hand studies of certain aspects of ưaditional medicine are often mứed in Western scientific thought and employ a biomedical understanding of efficacy without comprehending the biases this engenders. The result has been a lack of consensus within medical anthropology about how best to understand efficacy. The intent of this article is to critically examine how efficacy has been conceived and operationalized in the study of what is often referred to as traditional medicine. Related questions to be addressed include 1 how has the conceptualization of efficacy been different for traditional medicine than for biomedicine and 2 after many years of studying traditional medicine what key issues remain unresolved The definition of