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.