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ISSN 1568-2145

ISBN 978-1-4020-1166-5 ISBN 978-0-306-48094-2 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-0-306-48094-2

Kluwer Academic Publishers 2003

All rights reserved

No part of this eBook may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without written consent from the Publisher

www.springer.com

INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES
SCIENCE ACROSS CULTURES: THE HISTORY OF NON-WESTERN SCIENCE

In 1997, Kluwer Academic Publishers published the Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. The encyclopedia, a collection of almost 600 articles by almost 300 contributors, covered a range of topics from Aztec science and Chinese medicine to Tibetan astronomy and Indian ethnobotany. For some cultures, specific individuals could be identified, and their biographies were included. Since the study of non-Western science is not just a study of facts, but a study of culture and philosophy, we included essays on subjects such as Colonialism and Science, Magic and Science, The Transmission of Knowledge from East to West, Technology and Culture, Science as a Western Phenomenon, Values and Science, and Rationality, Objectivity, and Method.

Because the encyclopedia was received with critical acclaim, and because the nature of an encyclopedia is such that articles must be concise and compact, the editors at Kluwer and I felt that there was a need to expand on its success. We thought that the breadth of the encyclopedia could be complemented by a series of books that explored the topics in greater depth. We had an opportunity, without such space limitations, to include more illustrations and much longer bibliographies. We shifted the focus from the general educated audience that the encyclopedia targeted to a more scholarly one, although we have been careful to keep the articles readable and keep jargon to a minimum.

Before we can talk about the field of non-Western science, we have to define both non-Western and science. The term non-Western is not a geographical designation; it is a cultural one. We use it to describe people outside of the Euro-American sphere, including the native cultures of the Americas. The power of European and American colonialism is evident in the fact that the majority of the worlds population is defined by what they are not. And in fact, for most of our recorded history the flow of knowledge, art, and power went the other way. In this series, we hope to rectify the lack of scholarly attention paid to most of the worlds science.

As for defining science, if we wish to study science in non-Western cultures, we need to take several intellectual steps. First, we must accept that every culture has a science, that is, a way of defining, controlling, and predicting events in the natural world. Then we must accept that every science is legitimate in terms of the culture from which it grew. The transformation of the word science as a distinct rationality valued above magic is uniquely European. It is not common to most non-Western societies, where magic and science and religion can easily co-exist. The empirical, scientific realm of understanding and inquiry is not readily separable from a more abstract, religious realm.

Medicine Across Cultures is the third book in the series. It includes about 20 chapters. Most deal with medical systems as they are perceived and practiced by different cultures: Australian Aboriginal people, Native Americans, Samoans, Indians, etc. The book also contains a variety of essays on related subjects, such as Religion and Medicine or Chinese and Western Medicine.

We hope the series will be used to provide both factual information about the practices and practitioners of the sciences as well as insights into the worldviews and philosophies of the cultures that produced them. We hope that readers will achieve a new respect for the accomplishments of ancient civilizations and a deeper understanding of the relationship between science and culture.

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank the contributors to this volume; these are the easiest, most reliable people Ive ever worked with. I am so impressed with how committed they are to their subjects, while at the same time keeping their academic distance. It was a pleasure to read and work with their writing; no one was angry at me for changing their words. Thanks to Hugh Shapiro, the Advisory Editor, who read and commented on all the articles in addition to writing his own piece. Thanks to Dedie King, my acupuncturist, who makes it possible for me to maintain my equanimity and hard work at the same time. And thanks, always and again, to my loving family, Bob and Lisa and Lisa and Tim, my sources of balance, harmony, and wellbeing.

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

HELAINE SELIN (Editor)

is the editor of the Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1997) and Science Librarian and Faculty Associate at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. In addition to editing the new series, Science Across Cultures , she has been teaching a course on the Science and History of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.

HUGH SHAPIRO (Advisory Editor; Chinese and Western Medicine)

is Associate Professor of History at the University of Nevada, Reno. He received his B.A. and M.A. from Stanford, and his Ph.D. in 1995 from Harvard University. His area of research is the history of disease in China, and his experience in East Asia includes extensive research in Beijing, Shanghai, and Taipei, and visiting appointments at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken), Kyoto, Japan, and the National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan. In 1999, he received his universitys highest teaching award, and in 2000, the Liqing Prize for the History of Chinese Science (Taiwan). For 20022003, he is at the School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton, New Jersey.

GUY ATTEWELL (Islamic Medicines)

is studying for a Ph.D. at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, in the social history of Unani medicine in 19th and 20th century Hyderabad (India). His research is funded by a studentship from the Wellcome Trust. He studied for his first degree at the SOAS in Arabic, and did an M.A. in European Renaissance history at the Warburg Institute, London, focusing on Arabic medical learning in Europe. His research interests also include Portuguese accounts of medicine in 16th century Goa, and patient experience in contemporary medical practice.

DON BAKER (Oriental Medicine in Korea)

is an associate professor in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. His research has focused on the cultural history of Korea, particularly the history of traditional science, philosophy, and religion. He was one of the editors of Sourcebook of Korean Civilization (New York: Columbia University Press, 199396) and has also published Joseon hugi yugyo wa cheonju-gyo ui daerip [Confucians Confront Catholicism in the Latter Half of the Joseon Dynasty] (Seoul: Iljogak Press, 1997). In addition, he has published numerous articles in English on Korean religion, history, philosophy, and traditional science. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1983.

KAREN McCARTHY BROWN (Caribbean Medicine)

Drew University Professor of Anthropology of Religion, is the author of Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), winner of the Victor Turner Prize in Ethnographic Writing (American Anthropological Society), and The Best First Book in the History of Religions (American Academy of Religion) as well as Tracing the Spirit; Ethnographic Essays on Haitian Art (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1995). She has conducted fieldwork in Haiti and on the Haitian diaspora community in Brooklyn (New York), Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria. Founder and Director of Drews Newark Project, she has led an ethnographic exercise in mapping the religious life of the city of Newark, New Jersey.

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