Between Commensurability and Incommensurability : Making of“Ayurveda”in the Contact Zones

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  • Nakazora M.
    日本学術振興会特別研究員(PD) /京都大学人文科学研究所

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  • 翻訳可能性と不可能性の間 : 生物医療，代替医療，知的所有権制度との接触領域における｢アーユルヴェーダ」の生成
  • ホンヤク カノウセイ ト フカノウセイ ノ アイダ : セイブツ イリョウ,ダイタイ イリョウ,チテキ ショユウケン セイド ト ノ セッショク リョウイキ ニ オケル 「 アーユルヴェーダ 」 ノ セイセイ

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Abstract

This paper examines how "Ayurveda" has been defined or given shape, in relation to the different knowledge systems such as biomedicine, alternative medicine, and intellectual property right in contemporary India. Based on the approach of anthropology of science, which assumes "knowledge" not as discrete and consistent system, but as unstable and contingent "practice" being always "in the making, " it focuses on "translation" and "comparability" generated in the trading zones between Ayurveda and multiple knowledge traditions. Specifically paying attention to (1) the efforts to translate between Ayurvedic and biomedical concepts by "miśra" intellectuals who promoted professionalization of Ayurvedic medicine after independence, (2) Ayurvedic doctors' encounter with Western patients who were influenced by "alternative" and "holistic" medical movement in the West since 1980s, and (3) the contemporary project by Indian "state" actors to protect "Ayurveda" from misappropriation by western pharmaceutical companies in the regime of "intellectual property right", this paper describes the complicated and ambiguous process in each translation, which goes beyond simple discourses of "maintenance" or "decline" of authentic Ayurveda. By so doing, it is concluded that translation not only deletes the differences between different knowledge systems but also generates new forms of knowledge and identity in the trading zone between commensurability and incommensurability.

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  • 人文學報

    人文學報 107 159-187, 2015-09-30

    THE INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN HUMANITIES, KYOTO UNIVERSITY

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