ABSTRACT
This chapter relates to Alfred Gell’s work on the anthropology of time in that it critically examines a generally held belief about the temporal sequencing of allegedly distinctive processes in a medical encounter: diagnosis and treatment. The belief is that good medical practice consists of making a diagnosis first, and then delivering medical treatment accordingly. The diagnostic process is a complex one, as is already demonstrated in the flow diagram of an early study. Conditions of patients differ, some may be treated instantly, others may not be treated at all. For some one may have determined a cause before treatment, others are treated without searching for a cause. Inspection of the spatial layout of Chinese medical practices shows, however, that this table is central only to one among several rooms. The spatial arrangements of many ‘traditional’ African healers on the Tanzanian Swahili coast suggest that diagnosis and therapy happen simultaneously, in the same space, at the same time.
