Healing by Hand
Manual Medicine and Bonesetting in Global Perspective
Published on 8. October 2004
Book
Paperback/Softback
320 pages
978-0-7591-0393-1 (ISBN)
Description
Anthropologists have routinely overlooked the practice of body therapists, one of the primary providers of "traditional" medicine. Healing by Hand presents the first cross-cultural primer on manual medicine studies. As a particular modality of healing, manual medicine has reached a high level of popularity and importance as its practitioners investigate the body's important capacities for self-healing. The authors describe how manual medicine takes numerous forms across the world's communities, in urban and rural, as well as Western and non-Western, contexts, in individual and community lives. Though frequently overshadowed and challenged by allopathic practitioners, body workers continue to help the sick and injured reach their health goals. In this book, the individual ethnographic analyses of manual medicine describe beliefs and practices about healing, physical and psychological states, and the relation between culture and health. Given the therapeutic training of many of the authors, Healing by Hand should be a fascinating resource for manual practitioners of western medicine, including massage therapists, physical therapists, chiropractors, and osteopaths, as well as those with traditional training. It is especially recommended for various courses such as Medical Anthropology, Health and Human Culture, Technology and the Developing World, Sociology of Health, International Health, and Health Care Systems.
Reviews / Votes
This unique book succeeds in providing a diverse account of manual medicine in a global perspecitve. It is a big step away from the normal manual medicine texts discussing rationale, techniques, and outcomes that one might read. . . . The essays in this book are all well written, and the book provides a good and informative read for the manual medicine clinician interested in the history, diversity, and societal role of manual medicine in different parts of the world. * The Journal Of Manual and Manipulative Therapy * Make no bones about it, Healing by Hand is a fine collection of scholarly essays on history, practice, and cultural manifestations of manual medicine. Healing by hand is an ancient practice that has evolved into a wide variety of clinical techniques, all of which are based on mobilizing the body's own recuperative powers. In this volume Oths and Hinojosa have collected 13 'deep probes' into many different traditions of manual medicine, ranging from Balinese and Mayan bonesetting to contemporary chiropractic and bodywork. Given the enormous growth of interest in manual healing in recent decades, this is precisely the right time for scholarly investigation of manual therapy, culture, and healing. Healing by Hand will be an excellent resource in the fields of medical anthropology, cultural studies in health care, and international health. Likewise, the book will open fascinating new perspectives to clinical practitioners of healing by hand. -- Jack Coulehan, MD MPH, Preventive Medicine Director, Institute for Medicine in Contemporary Society Stony Brook UniversityMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
California
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
499 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7591-0393-1 (9780759103931)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Healing by Hand
Manual Medicine and Bonesetting in Global Perspective
E-Book
10/2004
1st Edition
AltaMira Press
€50.49
Available for download
Persons
Kathryn Oths (Professor of Anthropology, University of Alabama) has worked for nearly 20 years on the topic of healers of musculoskeletal disorders, chiropractic, and on bonesetting in the Andes. Servando Z. Hinojosa (Assistant Professor, University of Texas-Pan American) has written on spiritual embodiment among the Maya of Guatemala and has several recent publications on the topic of manual medicine.
Content
Chapter 1 Foreword Chapter 2 Preface Chapter 3 Introduction Chapter 4 1. Indigenous Bonesetters in Contemporary Denmark Part 4 Part I: Past Meets Present in Manual Medicine Practice Chapter 5 3. Competing Views of Chiropractic: Health Services Research Versus Ethnographic Observation Chapter 5 2. When the Body Leads the Mind: Perspectives on Massage Therapy in the United States Chapter 6 4. Divergences in the Evolution of Osteopathy in Four Anglophone Countries: The United States, Canada, Britain, and Australia Chapter 7 5. Achy-Breaky Art: The Historical Development and Contemporary Practice of Tuina Chapter 10 6. The Hands, the Sacred, and the Context of Change in Maya Bonesetting Part 10 Part II: Experience and Embodiment in Practitioner-Patient Encounters Chapter 11 7. Body as Teacher: The Roles of Clinical Model and Morphology in Skill Acquisition Chapter 13 8. Two Ethnographers and One Bonesetter in Bali Chapter 14 9. "Getting Rolfed": Structural Bodywork, Disciplined Deportment, and Embodiment Part 15 Part III: A Wider Lens: The Bonesetteris Contribution to Community Health Chapter 15 11. Borana Bonesetters: Integrating Modernity and Tradition in a Northern Kenyan Pastoral Community Chapter 17 10. The Componedor's Place in the Pluralistic Andean Health Care System Chapter 18 12. A Man of His People: A Concise Ethnography of a Welsh Bonesetter Chapter 19 13. It Takes a Village: Reflections of a Modern Day Bonesetter Chapter 20 Index