Traditional knowledge and modern health care: An analysis of WHO's training policy in traditional medicine in light of India's experience with Ayurveda

摘要

The World Health Organization's program "Health for All By the Year 2000" has led to an emphasis on the role of traditional medical systems in providing basic health care in developing countries. WHO has proposed training indigenous medical practitioners in the basics of primary health care and promoting national policies of "integrated" traditional and Western medicine.;This thesis analyzes the planning framework of WHO's policies on traditional medicine and provides evidence of an alternative model. WHO's selection of the Chinese model of "integration" is analyzed in light of political and epistemological considerations. The Chinese organizational model is argued to have resulted in the loss of important classical Chinese medical theory. It is also seen as the product of a unique political environment.;India's experience with Ayurveda is analyzed as an alternative model. The "integrated" model of traditional and modern medical education was rejected as failure in India after a twenty-five year period. Ayurveda was revitalized by the traditional medical community and was incorporated, as a result of a political process, as part of a "dual system" of national health.;Recent developments in the revival of Ayurveda are documented and analyzed in terms of their implications for WHO policy on traditional medicine.