ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines of what has been learned about universal and culture-specific structural processes mediating the healing process. It provides a less ethnocentric and medicocentric account of indigenous healing, drawing on the groundbreaking work of Frank and the large body of data and concepts developed by the other scholars. Few ethnographic and comparative studies of indigenous healing systems have actually determined that integrated healing does in fact occur on all several levels. Indigenous healing systems have been categorized and compared chiefly from the standpoint of the healing role and from that of the patient’s role. Professional and folk healing are further differentiated into specialized therapeutic roles and institutions. Many indigenous healing systems employ therapeutic rituals that, though they differ substantially, share at least one major structural similarity. The therapeutic relationship in the bureaucratic setting is by definition a tertiary role relationship, characterized by emotional distance, formality, personal anonymity, and separation from day-to-day life transactions.
