The anthropology of alternative medicine / Anamaria Iosif Ross.

Alternative medicine is not a fashionable new trend, but an established cultural strategy as well as a dynamic feature of mainstream contemporary medicine, in which elements of folk traditions are often blended with Western scientific approaches. This is a concise yet wide-ranging exploration of non-biomedical healing. The book addresses a broad range of practices including: substance, energy and information flows (such as helminthic therapy); spirit, consciousness and trance (shamanism, for example); body, movement and the senses (reiki and aromtherapy); as well as classical medical traditions as complements or alternatives to Western biomedicine (such as Ayurveda). The book explores the cultural underpinnings of contemporary healing methods, while assessing current ideas, topics and resources for further study.