Main description:

Unani Medicine in the Making examines the institutions and practices of Unani medicine, the Graeco-Islamic healing practice based on the humoral theory attributed to Hippocrates and officially recognized as a system of medicine in India. Drawing on diverse materials, including Urdu sources, interviews with practitioners, and observations in clinics, the book explores what Unani medicine is today by attending to its multiplicity, scrutinizing apparent tensions between the understanding of Unani as a system of medicine and its multiple enactments as Islamic medicine, medical science, or alternative medicine. Ethnographic details provide vivid descriptions of the current practice of Unani in India, and invite readers to rethink the idea that humoral medicine is incommensurable with modern medicine and science, and that the modernization of Asian medicines invariably leads to their biomedicalization. Ultimately, the book also discusses the relationship of Unani with Muslim communities, examining the growing practice of Prophetic Medicine in Urban India and increasing representations of Unani as Islamic Medicine.

Contents:

INTRODUCTION
MULTIPLICITY, PRACTICE ONTOLOGY, AND LOOPING EFFECTS
UNANI AND TRADITIONAL MEDICINE IN SOUTH ASIA
FROM THE TOPIC TO FIELDWORK

CHAPTER 1 - A SYSTEM OF MEDICINE?
OFFICIAL REPRESENTATIONS OF UNANI MEDICINE
UNANI PRACTITIONERS
TEXTUAL SOURCES OF AUTHORITY
SYSTEMATIZATION AND LOOPING EFFECTS

CHAPTER 2 - AUTHORITY, ORIGINALITY, AND THE LIMITS OF STANDARDIZATION
CREATION AND TRANSMISSION OF MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE
DEGREES AND (UN-)OFFICIAL PRACTICE
DEFYING STANDARDS

CHAPTER 3 - BEYOND HUMORALISM
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF UNANI MEDICINE
FINDING THE ROOT CAUSE OF DISEASE
THERAPEUTIC PRACTICES
HUMORALISM AND LOOPING EFFECTS

CHAPTER 4 - THE APPROPRIATION OF MODERN SCIENTIFIC ADVANCES AND CONCEPTS
A CASE OF BIOMEDICALIZATION?
USING MODERN DIAGNOSTIC METHODS

CHAPTER 5 - SCIENCE AND THE QUEST FOR ACCEPTANCE AND RECOGNITION
SCIENCE AS MEANS FOR RECOGNITION
VALIDATING UNANI THROUGH MODERN SCIENCE

CHAPTER 6 - UNANI MEDICINE AND MUSLIMS IN INDIA
UNANI MEDICINE AND MUSLIM CULTURE
ISLAMIC MEDICINE?
SECULAR OR ISLAMIC? UNANI AND PROPHETIC MEDICINE

CONCLUSIONS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX