Immortal Medicine

Understanding the Resilience of Burmese Alchemic Practice

Bibliographic Data

ID4564323
AuthorsCéline Coderey (0000-0003-0984-9396, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume38
Issue4
Pages412-424
Publication date2019-05-19
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueMedical Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0145-9740 • E-ISSN: 1545-5882
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01459740.2018.1550756
PMID30557055
OpenAlexW2905289752
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited18

The institutionalization of indigenous medicine in contemporary Myanmar (Burma) placed alchemy at the margins of the formal health system. The practice, however, remains very much alive. Here, I explore the resilience of alchemic medicine by unraveling the relationship between this practice and the social space within which it operates. I show that the negotiation of a space for resilience comes from the gray areas created by the weak regulatory system of the medical sector and the gap left by biomedicine. I demonstrate that the marginalization of alchemic practice has come to invest it with new political meanings that help its practitioners navigate that hostile space

Biomedicine · Environmental ethics · Indigenous · Institutionalisation · Medical practice · Negotiation · Political science · Politics · Psychological resilience · Social science · Sociology · Space (punctuation) · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Cambodian History and Society · Law · Medicine · Psychology · Race, Genetics, and Society · Social Psychology

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub