ABSTRACT
This book develops the concept of Asian Medical Industries as a novel perspective on traditional Asian medicines.
Complementing and updating existing work in this field, the book provides a critical and comparative analytic framework for understanding Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, Sowa Rigpa, and Japanese Kampo in the 21st century. No longer subaltern health resources or conservative systems of traditional knowledge, these medicines have become an integral part of modern Asia as innovative, lucrative industries. Ten original case studies employ insights from anthropology, history, geography, pharmaceutical sciences, botany, and economics to trace the transformation of Asian medical traditions into rapidly growing and dynamic pharmaceutical industries. Collectively, these contributions identify this as a major phenomenon impacting Asian and global healthcare, economics, cultural politics, and environments. The book suggests that we can learn more about Asian medicines today by approaching them as industries rather than as cultural or epistemic systems.
Asian Medical Industries is a highly original resource for students and scholars across a range of academic fields such as anthropology, history, and Asian studies, as well as medical practitioners, health sector actors, and policymakers.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |108 pages
IEast Asian medical industries
chapter 1|21 pages
Discovering new drugs in “Traditional” Chinese Medicine
chapter 2|30 pages
Cultivation and paternalism in the service of the market
chapter 3|29 pages
The development of the Kampo medicines industry
chapter 4|27 pages
The pharmaceutical industry of Toyama prefecture, Japan
part |88 pages
IISouth Asian medical industries
chapter 5|31 pages
Globalising Ayurveda, branding India
chapter 6|25 pages
Industry dynamics and clustering in Ayurvedic pharmaceutical production in South India
chapter 7|31 pages
Untangling the web of raw material supply for Ayurvedic industry
part |116 pages
IIISowa Rigpa industries