Complementary/alternative medicine at the AAA meeting

Traditional Ayurveda Drugstore (Kasuga Sho, Flickr, cc)This year’s AAA meeting includes several complementary/alternative medicine (CAM) presentations. All are invited to attend the interest group meeting Friday, November 16, at 12:15 in Union Square 10 (Hilton San Francisco). Additional CAM papers and sessions are listed below.

Wednesday, November 14

  •  “Redefining Diagnoses: Chronic Illness, Holistic Providers and Integrative Medicine In Toronto, Ontario and Portland, Oregon” by Suzanne E. Morrissey, Whitman College (3:15 pm, Powell)
  • “Tactical Repertoires As An Alternative to Medical Pluralism: Responding to Witchcraft Illness In Mwanza, Tanzania” by Amy B. Nichols-Belo, University of Virginia and Randolph-Macon College (4:00 pm, Powell)

Thursday, November 15

  • “Refugee States of Mind: Cultural Constructions of Psychopathology” by Jeffery L MacDonald, Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization (4:15 pm, Golden Gate 6)
  • “Roads to Recovery: Traversing the Border Between Health and Illness In Tautu, Vanuatu” by Ashley M Vaughan, University of Hawaii at Manoa (5:30 pm, Golden Gate 7)

Friday, November 16

  • “Creating Milk Kin Via Induced Lactation: New Kinship Ties to Reduce Social Risks of Adoption In Egypt” by Elizabeth A Smith, University of Vermont (9:00 am, Golden Gate 1)
  • “Sanitariums to Psychics and Suburban Witchcraft” by Kara E Mille, University of California, Riverside (11:45 am, Union Square 8)
  • COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE AND INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE GROUP (CAM & IM) OPEN BUSINESS MEETING sponsored by the Society for Medical Anthropology (12:15-1:30 pm, Union Square 10)

Saturday, November 17

“Engaging with Biomedicine from Beyond Its Borders” Sponsored by the Society for Medical Anthropology CAM & IM Group (1:45-3:30 pm, Golden Gate 1); organizers: Sonya E Pritzker (UC Los Angeles) and Jennifer Jo Thompson (University of Georgia)

  • 1:45 pm: “The Practice of Ayurveda In India’s Changing Consumer Society” by Mimi Nichter, University of Arizona, and Mark Nichter, University of Arizona
  • 2:00 pm: “Negotiating Biomedicine and Traditional Medicine In Cameroon” by Mary J Hallin, University of Nebraska
  • 2:15 pm: “Learning How to Complain: Negotiating Real and Conceptual Borders Between Chinese Medicine and Biomedicine In a U.S. Chinese Medical Training Program” by Sonya E Pritzker, UC Los Angeles
  • 2:30 pm: “Benedict’s Lens: Medical Students’ Perspectives On Integrative Medicine Education” by Shelley R Adler, UC San Francisco
  • 2:45 pm: “Complementary and Alternative Medical*scape*, Health Sovereignty, and Self-Care: Lived Experiences of ‘Global Ayurveda’ In the United States” by Santa Cruz Hughes, The Graduate Center, CUNY
  • 3:00 pm: “Following the Yellow Brick Road: Holistic Health Tourism At Lake Atitlan, Guatemala” by Lisa L Gezon, University of West Georgia
  • 3:15 pm: Discussant Cheryl K Ritenbaugh, University of Arizona

Sunday, November 18

  • “Online Motherly Advice:  Consolidation of Biomedical Hegemony Through Peer Communication On Slovenian Health Forums” by Tanja Ahlin, Heidelberg University, and Katerina Vidner Ferkov, University of Nova Gorica, (1:00 pm, Franciscan B)