A concise yet wide-ranging exploration of the cultural underpinnings of non-biomedical healing.

Table of Contents

• 1 Alternative Medicine in the Twenty-First Century
• Conflicting Interests Pertaining to the Rise of Integrative Medicine
• What Distinguishes an Anthropological Approach to Alternative Healing?
• Dominant Themes and Organization of the Book
• Anthropology and the Human Journey
• Healing Power and Agency
• What Are Cultural Constructions and Why Does It Matter to Health Care?
• A Bird's Eye Overview of Core Concepts in Medical Anthropology
• Curing or Healing?
• Biomedicine and Traditional Medicine
• Plural Healing in the Global Age: Intersections of Meaning and Power
• Current Practice: Helminths Return as Promising New Drugs
• 2 Substance, Energy, and Information Flows
• From the Flow of Rumors to Exposing the Global Traffic in Organs and Tissues
• Duality of Water: Vitality and Contamination
• Current Practice: Homeopathy
• Energy, Life-Force, and the Powers of the Sun
• Nourishment and Healing
• The American Health Foods Movement in the Early Twentieth Century
• Rising Trend: Alternative Consumption Movements in the Developed World
• Humoral Medical Traditions, Foods, and Herbs
• Case Study: ELTA Universitate—Natural Foods, Anesthesia, and Social Renewal
• Of Information and the Triadic Approach
• Energy, Dowsing, and Information
• 3 Spirit, Consciousness, and Trance
• Altered States, Bodies, and Souls
• Shamanic Consciousness and Symbolic Healing
• Hypnosis, Spirit(s), and Healing
• Current Practice: Rediscovering Hesychasm and the Prayer of the Heart
• Rising Trend: Healing Addictions with ASCs and Hallucinogens
• Faith Healing and Pilgrimage
• Ayurveda and Mental Illness
• 4 Body, Movement, and the Senses
• The Anthropology of Sensations and the Multidimensionality of Healing Work
• Smell and Taste
• Tactile Experiences
• Rhythm, Movement, and Music as Life
• Case Study: Becoming Radiant—Real Reiki in Postsocialist Romania
• Ascent into the Future: Aromatherapy, Art, and Science, Ancient and Modern
• Current Practice: Medical Aromatherapy
• Polythetic Medicine
• 5 Conclusion: Looking into the Future of Alternative Medicine
• Acknowledgments
• References