Healing the Hidden

This chapter analyzes the intricacies of vital spot medicine and the agency and interaction of patients and practitioners. Treatments include stimulations of particular loci to retrieve patients from unconscious states, treatments for chronic health problems, setting of fractures, and massage therapies, all largely conducted manually. Patients of indigenous Indian medicines, it has been argued, are emancipated and actively involved in therapeutic proceedings, unlike a popular view of biomedicine. Yet discourse on therapies, diagnosis, and treatments in vital spots medicine is secretive, the visual participation of patients and witnesses is discouraged, and practitioners’ diagnostic insights are not normally communicated to patients. Practitioners claim to “heal the hidden,” which cannot and should not be disclosed. Through tactile attending to their patients’ bodies in diagnosis and therapy, practitioners address ailments without devices such as radiographic images, but also without dispensing advice. Therapies catering to the hidden are not capable of verbalization.

Anthropological Studies and Insights · Computer Science · Indian and Buddhist Studies · Political Developments and Conflicts