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The Emergence of an Urban U.S. Chinese Medicine
Author(s) -
Hare Martha L.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
medical anthropology quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.855
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1548-1387
pISSN - 0745-5194
DOI - 10.1525/maq.1993.7.1.02a00030
Subject(s) - biomedicine , socioeconomic status , politics , traditional chinese medicine , western medicine , alternative medicine , sociology of health and illness , psychology , sociology , medicine , demography , health care , political science , law , pathology , population , genetics , biology
Fieldwork conducted among a diverse sample of non‐Asian patients of Chinese medicine in New York City during 1989 and 1990 showed that they are formulating models of health, illness, and healing based mainly upon their own bodily experience with therapy. They view the Chinese medical therapy that they receive as holistic, in contrast to the fragmentary nature of biomedicine. While some practitioners who were interviewed also spoke of personal encounters with the healing mechanisms of this non‐Western form of treatment, the models of both Asians and non‐Asians in this second category tended to focus upon Confucian or Taoist ideals of order and responsibility. It is hypothesized that, while certainly affected by socioeconomic and political exigencies, an urban U.S. variant of Chinese medicine may be emerging from the ground up; that is, from the consumers and therapists who are most intimately involved with the system.