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The Cross‐Cultural Evidence on “Extreme Behaviors”
Author(s) -
Jackson Jean E.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04536.x
Subject(s) - typology , ethnocentrism , hegemony , epistemology , buddhism , meaning (existential) , consciousness , biomedicine , intentionality , psychology , sociology , environmental ethics , social psychology , philosophy , anthropology , politics , political science , biology , law , theology , genetics
Many kinds of body/mind practices are capable of producing remarkable behaviors and altered body states. A typology of such behaviors and states, defined as observable and intentional “extreme” alterations to the body, is presented. Epistemological and methodological issues are discussed: limitations of observational data, and role of meaning, intentionality, and consciousness. Rapprochement between Western medicine and Indo‐Tibetan medicine requires rethinking biomedicine's radical grounding in physicality and reliance on “evidence‐based medicine,” and guarding against an ethnocentric Western intellectual hegemony motivating medical science and clinical practice to colonize and subvert non‐Western traditions like Indo‐Tibetan Buddhist medicine.