Elisabeth Hsu – författare

This collection brings together three generations of medical anthropologists working at European universities to reflect on past, current and future directions of the field. Medical anthropology emerged on an international playing ground, and while other recently compiled anthologies emphasize North American developments, this volume highlights substantial ethnographic and theoretical studies undertaken in Europe. The first four chapters trace the beginnings of medical anthropology back into the two formative decades between the 1950s-1970s in Italy, German-speaking Europe, the Netherlands, France and the UK, supported by four brief vignettes on current developments. Three core themes that emerged within this field in Europe – the practice of care, the body politic and psycho-sensorial dimensions of healing – are first presented in synopsis and then separately discussed by three leading medical anthropologists Susan Whyte, Giovanni Pizza and René Devisch, complemented by the work of three early career researchers. The chapters aim to highlight how very diverse (and sometimes overlooked) European developments within this rapidly growing field have been, and continue to be. This book will spur reflection on medical anthropology’s potential for future scholarship and practice, by students and established scholars alike.This book was originally published as a special issue of Anthropology and Medicine.

In the West ideas about Chinese medicine are commonly associated with traditional therapies and ancient practices which have survived, unchanging, since time immemorial. Originally published in 2001, this volume, edited by Elizabeth Hsu, demonstrates that this is far from the reality. In a series of pioneering case-studies, twelve contributors, from a range of disciplines, explore the history of Chinese medicine and the transformations that have taken place from the fourth century BC onwards. Topics of discussion cover diagnostic and therapeutic techniques, pharmacotherapy, the creation of new genres of medical writing and schools of doctrine. This interdisciplinary volume will be of value to anyone with an interest in the various aspects of Chinese medicine.

This is a study of the earliest extensive account of Chinese pulse diagnosis, or more accurately, the examination of mai. Dr Hsu focuses on a biography of Chunyu Yi, a doctor of the early Han, and presents the first complete translation into English of the Memoir in the Historical Records by Sima Qian (d. ca 86 BCE). This Memoir contains biographies of the physician, medical case histories and interviews, and constitutes a document of enormous importance to the history of medicine in China. The analysis covers the first ten medical cases and their rich vocabulary on touch, as used in Chinese pulse diagnosis. The patients treated were mostly nobility of the kingdom of Qi in Eastern China, who suffered from the indulgences of court life and were treated with early forms of decoction, fomentation, fumigation, acupuncture and moxibustion. To date there is no book on early China of its kind.

This is one of the first studies of traditional medical education in an Asian country. Conducting extensive fieldwork in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province in the People's Republic of China, Elisabeth Hsu became the disciple of, a Qigong master a scholarly private practitioner, who almost wordlessly conveys esoteric knowledge and techniques; attended seminars given by a senior Chinese doctor, an acupuncturist and masseur, who plunges his followers into the study of arcane medical classics, and studied with students at the Yunnan College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, where the standardised knowledge of official Chinese medicine is inculcated. Dr Hsu compares the theories and practices of these different Chinese medical traditions and shows how the same technical terms may take on different meanings in different contexts. This is a fascinating, insider's account of traditional medical practices, which brings out the way in which the context of instruction shapes knowledge.

...the book offers a platform to raise thought-provoking questions and encourages in-depth analyses to bridge the gulf between ethnobotany and medical anthropology...Highly recommended. Choice The tantalising and rather eclectic selection of edited chapters takes the reader around the world following plants making their way into local pharmacopoeias, symbolic systems, myths and ways of coping with the unknowns of human illness. This book offers a much needed, concise edited volume on plants, health and healing. It brings together research in the disciplines of botany, biochemistry, clinical medicine, anthropology and history highlighting the contributions of multidisciplinary research to promote a more nuanced understanding of medicinal plant use. JRAI Plants have cultural histories, as their applications change over time and with place. Some plant species have affected human cultures in profound ways, such as the stimulants tea and coffee from the Old World, or coca and quinine from South America. Even though medicinal plants have always attracted considerable attention, there is surprisingly little research on the interface of ethnobotany and medical anthropology.This volume, which brings together (ethno-)botanists, medical anthropologists and a clinician, makes an important contribution towards filling this gap. It emphasises that plant knowledge arises situationally as an intrinsic part of social relationships, that herbs need to be enticed if not seduced by the healers who work with them, that herbal remedies are cultural artefacts, and that bioprospecting and medicinal plant discovery can be viewed as the epitome of a long history of borrowing, stealing and exchanging plants. Elisabeth Hsu is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Oxford, where she has convened its master's courses in medical anthropology since 2001. Based on her earlier studies in biology (botany), linguistics and sinology, she has published widely on the history and anthropology of Chinese medicine. Stephen Harris was awarded a Ph.D. in plant systematics from the University of St. Andrews in 1990. He has been the Druce Curator of Oxford University Herbaria since 1995 and has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers on genetics and systematics associated with the evolutionary consequences of plant-human interactions.

Focusing on practice more than theory, this collection offers new perspectives for studying the so-called "humoral medical traditions," as they have flourished around the globe during the last 2,000 years. Exploring notions of "balance" in medical cultures across Eurasia, Africa and the Americas, from antiquity to the present, the volume revisits "harmony" and "holism" as main characteristics of those traditions. It foregrounds a dynamic notion of balance and asks how balance is defined or conceptualized, by whom, for whom and in what circumstances. Balance need not connote egalitarianism or equilibrium. Rather, it alludes to morals of self care exercised in place of excessiveness and indulgences after long periods of a life in dearth. As the moral becomes visceral, the question arises: what constitutes the visceral in a body that is in constant flux and flow? How far, and in what ways, are there fundamental properties or constituents in those bodies? Peregrine Horden is Professor of Medieval History at Royal Holloway, University of London, and an Extraordinary Research Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.He is co-author of The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History (with Nicholas Purcell, Blackwell, 2000) and author of Hospitals and Healing from Antiquity to the Later Middle Ages (Ashgate, 2008). He is also writing a general book on early hospitals for Yale University Press. Elisabeth Hsu is Professor of Anthropology at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology of the University of Oxford, and Governing Body Fellow of Green Templeton College. Recent co-edited volumes include Wind, Life, Health (with Chris Low, Blackwell, 2008) and Plants, Health and Healing: On the Interface of Ethnobotany and Medical Anthropology (with Stephen Harris, Berghahn Books, 2010). Her most recent authored book is Pulse Diagnosis in Early Chinese Medicine: The Telling Touch (Cambridge University Press, 2010).

This is a study of the earliest extensive account of Chinese pulse diagnosis, or more accurately, the examination of mai. Dr Hsu focuses on a biography of Chunyu Yi, a doctor of the early Han, and presents the first complete translation into English of the Memoir in the Historical Records by Sima Qian (d. ca 86 BCE). This Memoir contains biographies of the physician, medical case histories and interviews, and constitutes a document of enormous importance to the history of medicine in China. The analysis covers the first ten medical cases and their rich vocabulary on touch, as used in Chinese pulse diagnosis. The patients treated were mostly nobility of the kingdom of Qi in Eastern China, who suffered from the indulgences of court life and were treated with early forms of decoction, fomentation, fumigation, acupuncture and moxibustion. To date there is no book on early China of its kind.

This collection brings together three generations of medical anthropologists working at European universities to reflect on past, current and future directions of the field. Medical anthropology emerged on an international playing ground, and while other recently compiled anthologies emphasize North American developments, this volume highlights substantial ethnographic and theoretical studies undertaken in Europe. The first four chapters trace the beginnings of medical anthropology back into the two formative decades between the 1950s-1970s in Italy, German-speaking Europe, the Netherlands, France and the UK, supported by four brief vignettes on current developments. Three core themes that emerged within this field in Europe – the practice of care, the body politic and psycho-sensorial dimensions of healing – are first presented in synopsis and then separately discussed by three leading medical anthropologists Susan Whyte, Giovanni Pizza and René Devisch, complemented by the work of three early career researchers. The chapters aim to highlight how very diverse (and sometimes overlooked) European developments within this rapidly growing field have been, and continue to be. This book will spur reflection on medical anthropology’s potential for future scholarship and practice, by students and established scholars alike.This book was originally published as a special issue of Anthropology and Medicine.

Published as part of The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute Special Issue Book Series, and through a series of thought-provoking articles, Wind, Life, Health: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives examines the richness of human ideas surrounding wind in all its manifestations - breath, spirit, sentiment, life, and health. Examines the richness of human ideas and practices surrounding wind, life, and healthFeatures articles covering a wide range of themes including landscape, weather, body, perception, emplacement, climate, seasons, song, and musicConveys how different peoples have grappled with winds and spirits and how their experiences have shaped their worldExplores a range of cultures: hunters and gatherers in the polar regions, inhabitants of the Malaysian rain forest, Andaman Islands, ancient India, China, Greece, Muslim East Africa, Victorian England, and mountain-dwelling Swiss

Focusing on practice more than theory, this collection offers new perspectives for studying the so-called “humoral medical traditions,” as they have flourished around the globe during the last 2,000 years. Exploring notions of “balance” in medical cultures across Eurasia, Africa and the Americas, from antiquity to the present, the volume revisits “harmony” and “holism” as main characteristics of those traditions. It foregrounds a dynamic notion of balance and asks how balance is defined or conceptualized, by whom, for whom and in what circumstances. Balance need not connoteegalitarianism or equilibrium. Rather, it alludes to morals of self care exercised in place of excessiveness and indulgences after long periods of a life in dearth. As the moral becomes visceral, the question arises: what constitutes the visceral in a body that is in constant flux and flow? How far, and in what ways, are there fundamental properties or constituents in those bodies?

Based on fieldwork conducted between 2001-2008 in urban East Africa, this book explores who the patients, practitioners and paraprofessionals doing Chinese medicine were in this early period of renewed China-Africa relations. Rather than taking recourse to the ‘placebo effect’, the author explains through the spatialities and materialities of the medical procedures provided why -  apart from purchasing the Chinese antimalarial called Artemisinin -  locals would try out their ‘alternatively modern’ formulas for treating a wide range of post-colonial disorders and seek their sexual enhancement medicines.

Based on fieldwork conducted between 2001-2008 in urban East Africa, this book explores who the patients, practitioners and paraprofessionals doing Chinese medicine were in this early period of renewed China-Africa relations. Rather than taking recourse to the ‘placebo effect’, the author explains through the spatialities and materialities of the medical procedures provided why -  apart from purchasing the Chinese antimalarial called Artemisinin -  locals would try out their ‘alternatively modern’ formulas for treating a wide range of post-colonial disorders and seek their sexual enhancement medicines.