xvi Introduction its reputation and gain broader appeal only in the 20th century, again by adapting to circumstances. There are far too many developments such as the ones noted above, from both distant and more recent decades, to describe in an introduction such as this we must allow these few early examples to serve as indicators of how the field of alternative medicine got off the ground and began its evolution—in many different directions over time. The reader is referred to separate introductions preceding each of the five sections of this book for historical background information, and to the entries themselves for more detailed information on the history, development, and uses of the various practices making up the field of complementary and alter- native medicine. Intercultural Sources A word should be said here, though, about some medical traditions from cultures outside of North America that came to have an influence there. These traditions differ from the classic Western approach and yet share some surprising similarities with it. In China and India, as well as in pre-modern Europe, the human body was traditionally viewed as a kind of microcosm of the universe. Physicians in these cultures held that the cosmos and the corporal substance of the body, along with certain aspects of the body’s arrangement, had much in common—indeed, they were essentially the same. It was believed that the actions of the human body mim- icked, in many ways, those of the cosmological world. The body was affected by the movements of heavenly forces. Chinese traditional medicine, Indian Ayurvedic medicine, medieval astrology and alchemy, and even some aspects of Native Amer- ican traditional medicine all share this view. Chinese medicine, for example, gives primacy to the five main elements of the natural world: wood, water, fire, earth, and metal. There are also five planets, five directions (including the “center”), five tastes, fives smells, and five main organs: the heart, the liver, the spleen, the lungs, and the kidneys. Each of these components aligns with the others to compose a grand system of metaphysics, health, and wellness. Similarly, from the Indian sub- continent, Ayurveda features five elements (air, water, fire, earth, and ether), the five senses, and other fundamental connections while also giving primacy to the three doshas, or bodily humors (called, in this case, vata, pitta, and kapha). These linkages between the composition of the body and the operations of the external world have long defined the way healers in these medical traditions approach health and illness. In each case, Indian, Chinese, and early European, practitioners treat disease as an imbalance of fluids or energies within the body that echo disturbances occurring in the relationship between the patient and his or her social and metaphysical environment. Native American traditional medicine, as well, shares some of these same traits. The goal of the healer in each case is to reestablish equilibrium by addressing both the personal and cosmological signs and symptoms involved, usually through a combination of approaches—material/
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