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Truth Claims and Disputes in Ayurveda Medical Science
Author(s) -
Wolfgram Matthew
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of linguistic anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.463
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1548-1395
pISSN - 1055-1360
DOI - 10.1111/j.1548-1395.2010.01054.x
Subject(s) - discipline , ideology , epistemology , sociology , philosophy , law , social science , political science , politics
This article investigates how scientific truth claims are articulated and disputed by a community of practitioners of a South Asian system of medicine called Ayurveda. I first describe the epistemological criteria of authoritative knowledge in Ayurveda, which I theorize as a disciplinary ideology of truth. Next, I show how the protagonists at a scientific conference designed their truth claims to reference and index this ideological framework for evaluating truth. Ultimately, I argue that disputes over scientific truth constitute a stable and recurrent characteristic of the Ayurveda community because it is through such disputes that the community produces itself by maintaining and transforming its disciplinary boundaries. [Ayurveda, Kerala, truth claims, scientific debate, medical epistemology, postcolonial science]