Unani medicine in the making : practices and representations in 21st-century India

Unani Medicine in the Making examines the institutions and practices of Unani medicine, the Graeco-Islamic healing practice based on the humoral theory attributed to Hippocrates and officially recognized as a system of medicine in India. Drawing on diverse materials, including Urdu sources, interviews with practitioners, and observations in clinics, the book explores what Unani medicine is today by attending to its multiplicity, scrutinizing apparent tensions between the understanding of Unani as a system of medicine and its multiple enactments as Islamic medicine, medical science, or alternative medicine. Ethnographic details provide vivid descriptions of the current practice of Unani in India, and invite readers to rethink the idea that humoral medicine is incommensurable with modern medicine and science, and that the modernization of Asian medicines invariably leads to their biomedicalization. Ultimately, the book also discusses the relationship of Unani with Muslim communities, examining the growing practice of Prophetic Medicine in Urban India and increasing representations of Unani as Islamic Medicine. Doctors Or Hakims? -- The Old 4h1andānī Hakim As Embodiment Of Unani Knowledge -- The Cult Of Eminent Hakims -- The Unani Fraternity -- Textual Sources Of Authority -- Systematization And Looping Effects -- The Systematization Of (unani) Medicine: Historical Overview -- Enactments And Loopings -- 2. Authority, Originality, And The Limits Of Standardization -- Creation And Transmission Of Medical Knowledge -- Becoming A Hakim -- Institutionalized Training And Its Shortcomings -- Family Lineages And Secret Knowledge -- Degrees And (un-)official Practice -- The Regulation Of Practice Qualified And Registered Practitioners -- Bums As Second Choice -- Practicing 'allopathy' With A Unani Degree -- Defying Standards -- Individualized Treatments And Clinical Falsification -- Pulse Diagnosis And The Limits Of Standardization -- Exclusive Knowledge And The Pursuit Of Originality -- Standardized Drugs -- Variations Of Medicine And Multiplicity -- 3. Beyond Humouralism -- Fundamental Principles Of Unani Medicine -- The Concept Of Medicine And The Principles Of Human Physiology -- 'what Is First' -- Diseases -- Treatments And Prevention -- Finding The Root Cause Of Disease Observation And Questioning -- Pulse Examination -- 'it Is Written In The Books That Urine Speaks To The Hakims' -- Therapeutic Practices -- Food And Health -- Lifestyle And Regimen -- Unani Medicines -- Humoralism And Looping Effects -- 4. The Appropriation Of Modern Scientific Advances And Concepts -- A Case Of Biomedicalization? -- Using Modern Diagnostic Methods -- Diagnostic Aids -- Proof Of Effectiveness -- Biomedical Technologies? -- Modernizing Concepts -- On Matter And Qualities -- Combining Unani And Biomedical Knowledge -- 5. Science And The Quest For Acceptance And Recognition Science As Means For Recognition -- The Beginnings Of Modern Scientific Research On Unani -- The Government's Agenda For Unani Research And Global Health Policy -- A 'new Unani': The Unani Pharmaceutical Industry And The Global Cam Market -- Validating Unani Through Modern Science -- Clinical Trials -- 'the Method Has Changed But Not The Principles' -- Is Translation Possible? -- 6. Unani Medicine And Muslims In India -- Unani Medicine And Muslim Culture -- Historical Background -- Unani, Muslims, And Urdu -- Medical Communalism -- Islamic Medicine? -- Unani And T̤ibb-i Nabavī Kira Schmidt Stiedenroth. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Electronic Reproduction. Baltimore, Md Available Via World Wide Web. In 'Unani Medicine in the Making', Kira Schmidt Stiedenroth examines the contemporary institutions and practices of Graeco-Islamic healing in India. Drawing on interviews with practitioners, clinical observations, and Urdu sources, the book focuses on Unani's multiplicity, scrutinizing apparent tensions between the understanding of Unani as a system of medicine and its multiple enactments as Islamic medicine, medical science, or alternative medicine. Ethnographic details provide vivid descriptions of the current practices of Unani in India and invite readers to rethink the idea that humoral medicine is incommensurable with modern science. Ultimately, the book also discusses the relationship of Unani with Muslim communities, examining the growing practice of Prophetic Medicine in Urban India and the increasing representation of Unani as Islamic Medicine