Needles, Herbs, Gods, and Ghosts

by Linda L. BARNES

Overview

When did the West discover Chinese healing traditions? Most people might point to the "rediscovery" of Chinese acupuncture in the 1970s. In Needles, Herbs, Gods, and Ghosts, Linda Barnes leads us back, instead, to the thirteenth century to uncover the story of the West's earliest known encounters with Chinese understandings of illness and healing. A medical anthropologist with a degree in comparative religion, Barnes illuminates the way constructions of medicine, religion, race, and the body informed Westerners' understanding of the Chinese and their healing traditions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674020542
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	06/30/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	480
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Linda L. Barnes is Director of the Masters Program in Medical Anthropology and Cross-Cultural Practice, Division of Graduate Medical Sciences at Boston University School of Medicine. She holds a joint appointment as Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at BUSM, and in the Division of Religious and Theological Studies at Boston University.

Table of Contents

Contents List of Illustrations Introduction 1 First Impressions: Until 1491 2 A New Wave of Europeans: 1492–1659 3 Model State, Medical Men, and “Mechanick Principles”:1660–1736 4 Sinophiles, Sinophobes, and the Cult of Chinoiserie:1737–1804 5 Memory, History, and Imagination: 1805–1848 Conclusion Notes Abbreviations Bibliography Index