ABSTRACT
As we saw in selection 3, the predominance of scientific medicine in the United States and other industrialized countries over the first-three quarters of the twentieth century is an historical anomaly, given that a multiplicity of healing traditions is the norm in most places and times. This selection about treatment by homeopathic and other healers in a Mexican city also addresses the alternative–mainstream medicine dichotomy. Whiteford shows that patients seek different healers for different ailments. For some ailments, homeopathic medicine seems to be the mainstream choice. In addition, homeopathic healers are often trained biomedical physicians, blurring the boundaries between the two. This is similar to the practice of traditional Chinese medicine by a majority of Chinese biomedical physicians (see Harmsworth and Lewith 2001) and the use of alternative therapies along with biomedical ones by some physicians in Europe and the United States (see Baer 2001; Kaptchuk and Eisenberg 2001b; Reilly 2001).
