Healing by Hand: Manual Medicine and Bonesetting in Global Perspective
Author(s): Kathryn S. Oths (Editor), Servando Z. Hinojosa University of Texas-Pan American (Editor, Contributor), Marc Weill (Contributor), Simon Leyson (Contributor), Isaac K. Nyamongo (Contributor), Eric Levi Jacobson Professor of Philosophy and Jewish Studies at Middlebury College and Author (Contributor), Robert Anderson (Contributor), Norman Klein (Contributor), John W. O'Malley SJ (Contributor), Jennifer Minor (Contributor), H Vincent Black (Contributor), Hans A. Baer (Contributor), Ian Coulter (Contributor), Susan Walkley (Contributor), Carol H. Browner (Contributor)
Publisher: AltaMira Press
Publication Date: 17 Oct. 2004
Language: English
Print length: 320 pages
ISBN-10: 0759103925
ISBN-13: 9780759103924
Book Description
Anthropologists have routinely overlooked the practice of body therapists, one of the primary providers of ‘traditional’ medicine. Healing by Hand presents the first cross-cultural primer on manual medicine studies. As a particular modality of healing, manual medicine has reached a high level of popularity and importance as its practitioners investigate the body’s important capacities for self-healing. The authors describe how manual medicine takes numerous forms across the world’s communities, in urban and rural, as well as Western and non-Western, contexts, in individual and community lives. Though frequently overshadowed and challenged by allopathic practitioners, body workers continue to help the sick and injured reach their health goals. In this book, the individual ethnographic analyses of manual medicine describe beliefs and practices about healing, physical and psychological states, and the relation between culture and health. Given the therapeutic training of many of the authors, Healing by Hand should be a fascinating resource for manual practitioners of western medicine, including massage therapists, physical therapists, chiropractors, and osteopaths, as well as those with traditional training. It is especially recommended for various courses such as Medical Anthropology, Health and Human Culture, Technology and the Developing World, Sociology of Health, International Health, and Health Care Systems.
Editorial Reviews
Review
This unique book succeeds in providing a diverse account of manual medicine in a global perspecitve. It is a big step away from the normal manual medicine texts discussing rationale, techniques, and outcomes that one might read. . . . The essays in this book are all well written, and the book provides a good and informative read for the manual medicine clinician interested in the history, diversity, and societal role of manual medicine in different parts of the world. ― The Journal Of Manual and Manipulative Therapy
Make no bones about it, Healing by Hand is a fine collection of scholarly essays on history, practice, and cultural manifestations of manual medicine. Healing by hand is an ancient practice that has evolved into a wide variety of clinical techniques, all of which are based on mobilizing the body’s own recuperative powers. In this volume Oths and Hinojosa have collected 13 ‘deep probes’ into many different traditions of manual medicine, ranging from Balinese and Mayan bonesetting to contemporary chiropractic and bodywork. Given the enormous growth of interest in manual healing in recent decades, this is precisely the right time for scholarly investigation of manual therapy, culture, and healing. Healing by Hand will be an excellent resource in the fields of medical anthropology, cultural studies in health care, and international health. Likewise, the book will open fascinating new perspectives to clinical practitioners of healing by hand. — Jack Coulehan, MD MPH, Preventive Medicine Director, Institute for Medicine in Contemporary Society Stony Brook University
About the Author
Kathryn Oths (Professor of Anthropology, University of Alabama) has worked for nearly 20 years on the topic of healers of musculoskeletal disorders, chiropractic, and on bonesetting in the Andes. Servando Z. Hinojosa (Assistant Professor, University of Texas-Pan American) has written on spiritual embodiment among the Maya of Guatemala and has several recent publications on the topic of manual medicine.
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