Main description:

This subtle and powerful ethnography examines African healing and its relationship to medical science. Stacey A. Langwick investigates the practices of healers in Tanzania who confront the most intractable illnesses in the region, including AIDS and malaria. She reveals how healers generate new therapies and shape the bodies of their patients as they address devils and parasites, anti-witchcraft medicine, and child immunization. Transcending the dualisms between tradition and science, culture and nature, belief and knowledge, Langwick tells a new story about the materiality of healing and postcolonial politics. This important work bridges postcolonial theory, science, public health, and anthropology.

Contents:

Prologue 1 Orientations Part I A Short Genealogy of Traditional Medicine 2 Witchcraft, Oracles and Native Medicines; 3 Making (Tanzanian) Traditional Medicine Part II Hailing Traditional Experts 4 Intimate Becomings; 5 Institutional Evocations Part III Healing Matters 6 Alternative Materialities; 7 Interferences and Inclusions; 8 Shifting Existences (or Being and Not-Being); Conclusion Postcolonial Ontological Politics Epilogue; Glossary; Notes; References; Index