ANTH 45

ASIAN MEDICAL SYSTEMS

Instructor:
Prof. Sienna Craig
Email:
sienna.craig@dartmouth.edu
Tel:
646-9356
Course Time: MWF 10 hour (10:00-11:05)
X-hours:
Thurs. 12-12:50
Office hrs:
M 3-5; Th. 10-11:30

COURSE OVERVIEW
This course investigates several different systems of healing practiced in, and derived from,
Asia. Using Asian medical systems as our lens, we will strive to understand how all medical
systems are based on ways of knowing that are not only biologically but also culturally
determined embedded in the symbols and worldviews that characterize the historical,
linguistic, ecological, and political differences between and among civilizations. We will focus
specifically on three Asian medical systems: Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, and Tibetan medicine.
We will examine elements of change and continuity within these medical systems over time,
discuss how knowledge is transmitted, and how these medical systems fit within a model of
medical pluralism, meaning the existence of more than one healing system within a population
or society. We will analyze how Asian medical knowledge and practices are being used in
increasingly globalized contexts, including how they are being used by, and adapted to,
practitioners and patients the world over. We will explore and challenge the idea that a neat
division can be drawn between conventional western medicine, often called biomedicine,' and
so-called 'complementary', 'alternative', and 'traditional' medicines. We will investigate points
of plurality, synthesis, and translation within and between these medical systems. We will also
discuss how Asian medicines have give expression to nationalist ideas and ideals in the shaping
of modern India, China, and Nepal. We will consider how practitioners have negotiated a place
for their practices and medicines within contemporary state health care systems and health
development agendas. We will also consider the relationship between global interest in
complementary and alternative medicine and the current state of these medical systems in
Asian nations, communities, and families.
COURSE GOALS
I hope students will emerge from this course with an appreciation of the relationship between
medicine and culture, and a sense of the diversity of human responses to, and explanations of,
suffering, health, and illness. Beyond this, I hope students will gain a sense of how medicine and
medical practices are embedded within larger social, historical, and political contexts. Finally,
this course asks students to challenge and complicate their understandings of the 'West' and
the 'East'. What makes this division of the world's human communities and cultures a powerful
ideological tool, and, at the same time, a vast simplification?

At the end of the term you should be able to:

1. Provide summaries in your own words of the histories and medical theories at the core
of Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, and Tibetan medicine.
2. Articulate how and why these 'traditional' medical systems have found their place
within modern nation-states in which they are primarily practiced;
3. Consider the diversity of ways medical knowledge has been transmitted between
generations, from teachers to students, and how this has impacted clinical practice;
4. Understand what is meant by the term medical pluralism and how it relates to these
systems of healing as they are practiced today;
5. Describe and analyze some of the ways biomedicine has influenced, and is influenced
by, these Asian medical systems.
COURSE STRUCTURE AND REQUIREMENTS
This course will mix lectures and discussions. It will require your active participation. I ask that
you approach this class with an open mind, a willingness to question your assumptions, a desire
to learn from me and from your fellow students, and a sense of diligence and responsibility in
relation to your coursework. I also encourage you to make use of the Blackboard discussion
forum to post questions and other feedback about the course material. Exams and writing
assignments will require you to compare anthropological approaches and ethnographic case
studies we have discussed during the term. Active participation in class discussion will help you
to develop your ideas and broaden your understanding of the course material.
GROUND RULES
Readings are due on the day they are listed in the syllabus. It is your responsibility to
read the syllabus carefully and come to class prepared. I expect you to be on time and
prepared for class.
Please turn off all pagers and cell phones during class.
If you would like to take notes on a laptop, that is ok, provided that you turn off the
wireless function. Using the Internet or checking Blitz messages during class is both
disrespectful to me and to your fellow students, and distracting.
I will do my best to answer emails related to the course in a timely manner. However, I
reserve the right to take 24 hours to return messages. Please bear this in mind if you
contact me with questions and requests.
I expect you to treat your fellow students and me with respect. Listen well. Please do
not interrupt your fellow students or me, but please do offer alternative viewpoints if
you feel compelled to do so.
TEXTS
Below are the required texts for this course. The books are for sale at the Dartmouth Bookstore
and Wheelock Books. Copies of the books will also be placed on reserve in Baker/Berry.
1. Hsu, Elisabeth, 1999. The Transmission of Chinese Medicine. Cambridge, Cambridge
University Press.
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2. Langford, Jean M., 2002. Fluent Bodies: Ayurvedic Remedies for Postcolonial Imbalance.
Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
3. Prost, Audrey, 2008. Precious Pills: Medicine and Social Change among Tibetan Refugees in
India. London and New York: Berghahn Books.
**All other readings and required resources are available on the course Blackboard site.
FILMS
Throughout the term, we will use course X hours and some class time to screen several films.
Students are expected to attend the screenings, or to watch films on your own time. Some of
the films will be streamed. All of the films are available on reserve at Jones Media Center.
ATTENDANCE
I will be passing around a sign in sheet at the beginning of each class. If you miss more than a
week of class total (e.g. 3 class meetings) your final evaluation will be dropped by half a letter
grade. Out of respect for your fellow students and me, I expect you will only be absent if you
are sick or have some other legitimate, unanticipated extenuating circumstance. It is also
important to note that, since we will not be using a textbook for this course, lectures will
provide the thematic continuity and the structural skeleton for what I expect you to learn this
term. I will make powerpoint slides available on Blackboard, but these are only guidelines for
the material covered in a given lecture. You will not be able to do well on exams if you do not
attend class on a regular basis.
GRADES AND ASSIGNMENTS
Your grade in this class will be based on the following:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Midterm Exam
Final Exam
Critical Summary
Clinical Trial Paper

30%
30%
15%
25%

Exams will consist of definitions, short answers, diagrams, matching, and essays.
Questions will be drawn from readings, lectures, and films. If you complete the readings
but do not attend class it will not be possible to do well on the exams. The midterm
exam will cover material from the first half of the course. The final exam will be
weighted toward material covered in the second half of the course, but the essays
questions will ask you to consider material from the entire term. Both exams are worth
30% of your grade.
Critical Summary: At the beginning of the term, I will pass around a sign-up sheet that
lists all class meetings. Each of you is expected to help facilitate class discussion one
time during the term. Depending on course enrollments, you may end up co-facilitating
with a fellow student. When it is your turn to facilitate discussion, you are expected to
write a brief (750 word) critical summary on one of the assigned readings for that day.
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This does not mean a book report-type summary. Rather, I expect you to recount and
critically reflect on the authors main argument, key questions, and conclusions in your
own words. You are encouraged to think about the data the author uses to present
his/her argument. What evidence does the author use? Is this evidence convincing? You
should close your critical summary with one thoughtful discussion question, which you
will share with the class. The summaries will be turned in to me and also posted to
Blackboard, to help facilitate review for examinations.
Clinical Trial Paper: This assignment requires that you consider an Asian healing
method/therapy/medicine in the context of a clinical trial. By 'clinical trial' I include
randomized controlled trials (RCTs), as well as observational trials carried out in a clinical
setting. I do not mean strictly lab-based analyses, such as tests of organic material used
in Asian medicines to determine base levels of toxicity or active ingredients. You must
find 1-2 scientific articles that discuss a particular research project, including its methods
and outcomes, as the basis for your essay. In your 1500-word essay, you are expected
to provide a close anthropological reading of these scientific articles, in the light of what
we've learned about Asian medicines and their interactions with biomedicine and
conventional science over time. You do not have to limit your topic to the three main
Asian medical systems we have encountered through course readings. For example, you
could choose to focus on Korean medicine, Reiki therapy from Japan, or a clinical trial
conducted with human subjects about a specific Chinese medicinal plant, e.g. ginseng, or
a practice such as yoga. We will have one library session with Anthropology librarian
Amy Witzel, in which you will receive guidance about how to find relevant scientific
articles.
LATE SUBMISSIONS AND RESCHEDULED EXAMS
Assignments are due on their indicated due date. Requests for extensions should be made prior
to the due date. Unless there is a documented illness or emergency, late assignments will not
be accepted. If you know in advance that an examination for this course will conflict with
another exam, you must notify me at least one week before the scheduled exam so we can
arrange a suitable exam time.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
You are here at Dartmouth to expand your knowledge of yourself and the world around you, to
foster intellectual engagement with your instructors and your fellow students, and to push your
creative and analytic abilities through whichever disciplines in which you choose to
concentrate. As such, maintaining your academic integrity and protecting the intellectual
property of both yourself and others is paramount. You are here to collaborate and also to
develop original ideas and arguments, particularly in your written assignments. Plagiarism
means the use of other peoples intellectual property their ideas and words without
properly acknowledging such sources, instead claiming the ideas as your own. I take the
issue of academic integrity seriously, and expect you to do the same, and to abide by the
Dartmouth Honor Code. If you have questions about how to reference sources, please see
Sources, Their Use, and Acknowledgement, available at: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sources/.
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STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

Students with learning, physical, or psychiatric disabilities enrolled in this course that may need
disability-related classroom accommodations are encouraged to make an office appointment to
see me before the end of the second week of term. All discussions will remain confidential,
although the Student Accessibility Services office may be consulted to discuss appropriate
implementation of any accommodation requested.
RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES
I realize that some students may wish to take part in religious observances that fall during this
academic term. Should you have a religious observance that conflicts with your participation in
the course, please come speak with me before the end of the second week of term to discuss
appropriate accommodations.

CLASS SCHEDULE
Part 1 - What is Asian Medicine?
Week 1:

What is 'Asian Medicine'?

Mar. 30
Readings

Course introduction and overview

none; discussion of course themes and syllabus

Apr. 1
Anthropology and Asian Medicine: A Brief History
Readings
Young, Allan and Charles Leslie, 1992. Introduction IN Paths to Asian
Medical Knowledge, pp. 1-14
Kaptchuk, Ted and Michael Croucher, 1986. The Healing Arts: A Journey
through the Faces of Medicine, pp. 6-25
Apr. 3
Readings

Ideologies and Epistemologies: Where does Asian Medicine Fit?

Said, Edward, 1978. "Introduction" in Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books,
pp. 1-28.

Bates, Don. 1995. "Introduction" in Knowledge and the Scholarly Medical

Traditions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1-22

Part 2 - Chinese Medicine

Week 2:

Chinese Medicine: Knowledge and Practice

Apr. 6
Readings
Film

Ways of Learning
Hsu, Introduction and Ch. 1
To Taste a Hundred Herbs - Watch in Class

Apr. 8
Readings

Qigong and Qi
Hsu, Ch. 2

Palmer, David, 2007. "Introduction" in Qigong Fever: Body, Science, and

Utopia in China, New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 1-28
Apr. 10
Readings

Lineages, Texts, and the Problem of "Tradition"

Hsu, Ch. 3-4

Scheid, Volker, 2006. "Introduction" in Currents of Tradition in Chinese

Medicine, 1626-2006, Seattle, WA: Eastland Press, pp. 1-16.

Week 3:

Plurality and Synthesis within Chinese Medicine

Apr. 13
Readings

Standards and Standardization

Hsu, Ch. 5

Xu, Xiaoqun, 1997. National Essence vs. Science: Chinese Native

Physicians Fight for Legitimacy, 1913-1937. Modern Asian Studies, 31(4):
847-877.
Apr. 15
Readings

Medicine, Mao, and Modernity

Hsu, Ch. 6
Farquhar, Judith, 1995. "Re-Writing Traditional Medicine in post-Maoist China"
in D. Bates, ed. Knowledge and the Scholarly Medical Traditions. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, pp.251-275.

Apr. 17
Readings

Practicing Acupuncture in Vermont, guest lecture by Judith Music

Hsu, Discussion

Part 3 - Ayurveda
Week 4:

The Science of Life

Apr. 20
Readings

Orienting to Ayurveda
Langford, Ch. 1

Film

Trawick, Margaret, 1995. "Writing the Body and Ruling the Land: Western
Reflections on Chinese and Indian Medicine" in D. Bates, ed. Knowledge and
the Scholarly Medical Traditions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.
279-296.
Ayurveda: The Art of Being - Begin in class; finish viewing on your own

Apr. 22
Readings

Modes of Practice, Methods of Nation-building

Langford, Chs. 2-3

Apr. 23 x-hr

MIDTERM REVIEW
Optional review session

Apr. 24
Readings

MIDTERM EXAMINATION
NONE

Week 5:

Medicine, Colonialism, and Postcoloniality in India

Apr. 27
Readings

Medicine as a Colonial and Post Colonial Strategy

Langford, Chs. 4 -5

Apr. 29
Readings

Science, Magic, and Affect

Langford, Chs. 6-7

May 1
Readings

Yoga and Ayurveda - Guest Lecture by Marie Fourcaut

Langford Epilogue
Alter, Joseph, 2005. "Modern Medical Yoga: Struggling with a History of
Magic, Alchemy, and Sex. Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity 1(1): 119148
Part 3 - Tibetan Medicine

Week 6:

Tibetan Healing Traditions

May 4
What is Tibetan Medicine, and What is "Tibetan" About It?
Readings
Meyer, Fernand, 1995. "Theory and Practice in Tibetan Medicine" in van
Alphen and Aris, eds. Oriental Medicine: An Illustrated Guide to the Asian Arts
of Healing. London: Serindia Publications, pp. 109-141 (this includes
pictures).
May 6
Tibetan Medicine and Buddhism
Readings
Samuel, G. 1999. "Religion, Health and Suffering among Contemporary
Tibetans," in Religion, Health and Suffering. Edited by J. R. Hinnells and R.
Porter, pp. 85-110. London and New York: Kegan Paul International.
May 7 x-hr

Library Session with Amy Witzel

Session to discuss search strategies for your Clinical Trials Paper

May 8

Tibetan Medicine: Between the Local and the Global

Readings

Janes, C. R. 2002. Buddhism, science, and market: the globalisation of Tibetan

medicine. Anthropology and Medicine 9:267-289.
Amchi - Watch part in class; finish on your own

Film

**May 8 - 10 Special Seminar: Comparing Tibetan and Japanese Buddhist Traditions through
the Vimalakirti Sutra. You are strongly urged to go to one event related to this special seminar.
More details forthcoming.

Week 7:

Tibetan Medicine and Social Change

May 11
Readings

Medical Pluralism in Tibetan Societies

Prost, Introduction and Ch. 1-2

May 13
Readings

Tibetan Idioms of Distress

Prost, Ch. 3-4

May 15

Becoming a Tibetan Medical Practitioner - guest lecture by Dr. Yang Ga

Readings

Prost, Ch. 5-6

Craig, S. R. 2008. "Place and Professionalisation: Navigating amchi Identity in
Nepal," in Tibetan Medicine in the Contemporary World. Edited by L. Pordi,
pp. 62-90. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
Part 4 - Transnational Asian Medicines

Week 8:

Journeys: East and West

May 18
Readings

What is 'Asian' about Asian Healing Systems Today?

Harrington, Anne, 2008. "Eastward Journeys" in The Cure Within: A History of
Mind-Body Medicine, New York and London: W.W. Norton and Co, pp. 205242

May 20
Readings

'Traditional' Medicine for Modern Diseases

van Hollen, Cecilia, 2005. "Nationalism, Transnationalism, and the Politics of
'Traditional' Indian Medicine for HIV/AIDS" in J. Alter, ed. Asian Medicine and
Globalization, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, pp. 88-106.

May 22
Readings

Film

Medicine Between Local and Global Worlds **Prof. Craig at conference

Zhan, Mei, 2001. Does it take a Miracle? Negotiating Knowledges, Identities,
and Communities of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Cultural Anthropology
16(4): 453-480.
Journeys with Tibetan Medicine - Watch in class; finish on own

Week 9:

Translational Science

May 25
Readings

MEMORIAL DAY - no class

Catch up day

May 27
Readings

Translations through Research

Adams, Vincanne, Suellen Miller, Sienna Craig et al 2005, "The Challenge of
Cross-Cultural Clinical Trials Research: Case Report from the Tibet
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Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China," Medical Anthropology

Quarterly 19(3): 267-289.
May 29
Readings

Translations through Practice

Barnes, Linda, 2005. American Acupuncture and Efficacy: Meanings and Their
Points of Insertion. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 19(3): 239-266.

Assignment

Jacobson, E. E. 2002. Panic attack in a context of comorbid anxiety and

depression in a Tibetan refugee. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 26:259-279.
Clinical Trial Paper due 5pm May 29

Week 10:

Wrap Up

June 1 Final Examination Review and Course Evaluations

Readings
Anything you havent finished!
June 5

FINAL EXAMINATION
8:00am

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