Medical Pluralism in Contemporary India questions the dominant view of indigenous systems of medicine as cultural remnants of a traditional past. It points out that their practitioners greatly outnumber those of biomedicine (allopathy) and explores the reasons behind the enduring presence and importance of health care traditions such as ayurveda, siddha and unani.The authors go beyond simplistic distinctions like traditionalmodern and scienceculture. They  draw attention to the possibility of...

Buddhism and Bioethics is the first book to discuss contemporary issues in bioethics from a Buddhist perspective. Written in a clear and accessible style by a leading expert in field, and drawing on both ancient and modern sources, it shows how Buddhist ethical teachings can be applied to a range of controversial issues like abortion and euthanasia.

The subject of discussion in this book is the philosophy of welfare Economics. The collective choice and the subjects of freedom through development are discussed in welfare economics. Inequality is to be reduced and basal equality has to be evolved to aid human welfare. The entitlement approach is the only solution for poverty and famine. All four subjects are woven in philosophical thought by Dr.Amartya Sen for the wellbeing of people. The book is a humble attempt at dealing with the sub...

In cross-cultural health care interactions, there are many situations where communication is challenging because patients and their families exhibit different values, beliefs, and behaviors from those of their American physicians. Physicians educated in western medicine, who work in the health care system in the United States, operate within a highly specific medical culture though they may not even realize how acculturated they have become within that world of medicine.As a result...

Affliction inaugurates a novel way of understanding the trajectories of health and disease in the context of poverty. Focusing on low-income neighborhoods in Delhi, it stitches together three different sets of issues.First, it examines the different trajectories of illness: What are the circumstances under which illness is absorbed within the normal and when does it exceed the normal—putting resources, relationships, and even one’s world into jeopardy?A second set of issues...

The Anthropology of Health and Healing provides the first holistic approach to the study of medical anthropology. Over the past two decades, medical anthropology has been the most rapidly growing subfield in anthropology, and a number of medial anthropology texts have been published, focusing primarily on public policy and health care delivery systems. Yet while Anthropologists have researched topics related to medical anthropology for over 100 years, here Womack thoroughly survey...

Amrita Nandy is a scholar whose work focuses on issues of gender, rights and culture. Her academic work has been published both in India and abroad, including in journals such a as the Economic and Polictical Weekly and Women's Studies International Forum. Amrita contributes to a range of dailies and news portals such as The Indian Express and The Wire. Her piece titled 'Ticking Outside the Box' (The Indian Express, 17 September 2014) won the 2015 Laadli ...

The popularity of Tibetan medicine plays a central role in the international market for alternative medicine and has been increasing and extending far beyond its original cultural area becoming a global phenomenon. This book analyses Tibetan medicine in the 21st century by considering the contemporary reasons that have led to its diversity and by bringing out the common orientations of this medical system. Using case studies that examine of the social, political and identity dynamics of Ti...

Health is most important for a happy life. This dialogue is a discussion on health, the essential requirement for happiness of all human beings, by Dr. René Simard, the former rector of the University of Montreal, who is an authority on cancer studies, and Dr. Guy Bourgeault, who is a specialist in ethics and a man of profound learning in the field of theology, with a Buddhist, Dr. Daisaku Ikeda. All three authors wish that the 21st century may be a century of life, from which a healthy an...

Vibrant, dynamic, spirited and forceful. The contemporary women’s movement in India, which began in the late 1970s protested against the dark times, the violence and the misogyny. It also colourfully celebrated liberation, solidarity among women and breaking the shackles of patriarchy. It sang, performed and painted, to draw attention to the burning issues of the time: dowry death, widow immolation, acid throwing and rape. Over the past three decades, the women’s movement has matured and broa...

Health, Culture and Religion in South Asia brings together top international scholars from a range of social science disciplines to critically explore the interplay of local cultural and religious practices in the delivery and experiences of health in South Asia. This groundbreaking text provides much needed insight into the relationships between health, culture, community, livelihood, and the nation-state, and in particular, the recent struggles of disadvantaged groups to gain ac...

A Hindu monk in Calcutta refuses to take his psychotropic medications. His psychiatrist explains that just as his body needs food, the drugs are nutrition for his starved mind. Does it matter how—or whether—patients understand their prescribed drugs?Millions of people in India are routinely prescribed mood medications. Pharmaceutical companies give doctors strong incentives to write as many prescriptions as possible, with as little awkward questioning from patients as possible. Wit...