Bodies, Politics, and African Healing

Download or read book Bodies, Politics, and African Healing written by Stacey A. Langwick and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2011-06-23 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.