Needles, herbs, gods, and ghosts : China, healing, and the West to 1848 / Linda L. Barnes.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Barnes, Linda L.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Medicine, Chinese--Popular works.

Medicine, Chinese.

Medicine--Asia--History.

Medicine.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (480 p. ) ill.

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

China, healing, and the West to 1848

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, 2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

When did the West discover Chinese healing traditions? Most people might point to the "rediscovery" of Chinese acupuncture in the 1970's. In Needles, Herbs, Gods, and Ghosts, Linda Barnes leads us back, instead, to the thirteenth century to uncover the story of the West's earliest known encounters with Chinese understandings of illness and healing. A medical anthropologist with a degree in comparative religion, Barnes illuminates the way constructions of medicine, religion, race, and the body informed Westerners' understanding of the Chinese and their healing traditions.

Contents:

Front matter

Acknowledgments

Contents

Illustrations

Introduction

CHAPTER 1. First Impressions: Until 1491

CHAPTER 2. A New Wave of Europeans: 1492-1659

CHAPTER 3. Model State, Medical Men, and "Mechanick Principles": 1660-1736

CHAPTER 4. Sinophiles, Sinophobes, and the Cult of Chinoiserie: 1737-1804

CHAPTER 5. Memory, History, and Imagination: 1805-1848

Conclusion

Notes

Abbreviations

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Originally published: 2005.

Includes bibliographcial references (p. 374-436) and index.

ISBN:

9780674261914

0674261917

9780674020542

0674020545

OCLC:

1013946979