Thesis ID: CBB001561161

Medicine in the Making in Post-Colonial Korea (1948--2006) (2008)

unapi

Ma, EunJeong (Author)


Cornell University
Lynch, Michael E.


Publication Date: 2008
Edition Details: Advisor: Lynch, Michael E.
Physical Details: 264 pp.
Language: English

The doctoral dissertation is a study of the evolving relationship between two officially sanctioned knowledge systems in post-colonial South Korea. It is a historical and ethnographic account of a series of controversies between the two medical systems, Western medicine (WM) and Korean Oriental medicine (OM). The dissertation examines the emergence of new forms of "participatory" public policy in the context of postwar reconstruction. Treating controversy as a transformative political event, the dissertation analyzes four controversies that took place between 1948 and 2006. These controversies focused on the herbal medicine cabinet, national medical insurance, herbal medicines, and computerized tomography (CT) scanning. The dissertation pays particular attention to language and actions that resonate with the notion of incommensurability. Over the course of the controversy, participants stressed the themes of incommunicability and incommensurability between the two knowledge systems. They did so when they believed that their system of knowledge and practice was being appropriated by the rival party. By hotly contesting their rival views about the body, disease, and governmental policies, both parties opportunistically presented arguments about incommensurability in the extended contest for official recognition and resources. However, the theme of incommensurability was selectively and asymmetrically appropriated in arguments. During most of the controversies, proponents of OM stressed the incommensurability of the two systems, while the WM side stressed translatability and transferability. However, in the case of CT scanning, the position was reversed, as the WM side emphasized incommensurability when they objected to the use of that technology in OM hospitals. This asymmetrical rhetoric of incommensurability contributed to disputes and negotiations over jurisdictional boundaries and helped to rearticulate and consolidate the professional identity of each group. Currently, there are few studies of the transition from colonies to nation-states in the East Asian context that examine the contested realms of science, technology, and medicine. In remedying that deficit, the dissertation brings new insights to the broader scholarship on science, medicine, technology, and nation-building in colonial and post-colonial societies.

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Description Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 69/09 (2009). Pub. no. AAT 3329982.


Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001561161/

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Authors & Contributors
Yi, Kiebok
Shin, Dongwon
Oh, Chaekun
Jongwook Jeon
Taewoo Kim
Zieme, Peter
Concepts
Medicine, traditional
East Asia, civilization and culture
Medicine
Medicine, Chinese traditional
Cross-cultural interaction; cultural influence
Western world, civilization and culture
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, late
20th century
Choson dynasty (Korea, 1392-1910)
21st century
17th century
Places
Korea
China
Tibet
Central Asia
India
Buryatia (Russia)
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