ABSTRACT
The previous selection presented three comparative frameworks and showed how cross-cultural studies highlight the complexity of cultural models for thinking about illness and how to manage it. This selection is a keystone in critical medical anthropology that analyzes accepted scientific categories and assumptions underlying scholarly research and interpretation. In particular, the selection focuses on the epistemological tradition of Cartesian dualism that divides the spirit from matter, the mind from the body, and the subjective from the objective (see selections 3 and 11). As we saw in the last selection, although these divisions may continue to influence Western scholarship, they are not cultural universals. Indeed, there are many examples of philosophical traditions that emphasize inclusiveness or complementarity rather than exclusiveness or opposition, such as Chinese yin/yang cosmology.
