Medical Pluralism in the Republic of Ireland Biomedicines as Ethnomedicines

• Published in: Folk Healing and Health Care Practices In Britain and Ireland p. 181
• Main Authors: Anne MacFarlane, Tomas de Brún
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Berghahn Books 15.06.2010
• Edition: NED - New edition, 1
• Subjects: Ancient philosophy; Anthropology; Applied anthropology; Asylum seekers; Behavioral sciences; Biological sciences; Biology; Complementary therapies; Cultural anthropology; Cultural diversity; Cultural pluralism; Cultural studies; Diseases; Ethnography; Ethnology; European studies; Folk medicine; Foreign residents; General practice; Healing; Health care industry; Health sciences; Historical methodology; Historiography; History; History of philosophy; Human populations; Irish culture; Irish studies; Medical conditions; Medical practice; Medical treatment; Persons; Physiological processes; Physiology; Pluralist school; Political refugees; Population studies; Presocratic philosophy; Refugees; Social sciences; Traditional medicine
• ISBN: 1845456726; 9781845456726

This chapter is concerned with the relationship between diverse medical systems as they co-exist in the Republic of Ireland over time. We offer an overview of the history of folk medicine in Ireland, as well as analysis of ‘alternative’ and ‘complementary’ medicine use and the practice of biomedicine with reference to resistance and allegiances within majority and minority communities. We draw on research conducted during the 1990s about traditions of folk healing, their relationships with more recent alternative and complementary medicine and the positioning of Western biomedicine as the formal, sanctioned healthcare system. These empirical data are put in dialogue