u/okdoomerdance

I am super interested in medical anthropology and the colonization of medical systems, i.e. the shift from land-based, indigenous medicines administered more locally to a hierarchical, research-dominant structure of medical authority. if anyone could recommend some readings/sources, I would be very grateful!

my background is psychology and I've only dipped a toe in anthropology but I would rather be thrown in the deep end and figure it out from there.

I tried posting this in ask anthropology, no bites.

I am super interested in medical anthropology and the colonization of medical systems, i.e. the shift from land-based, indigenous medicines administered more locally to a hierarchical, research-dominant structure of medical authority. if anyone could recommend some readings/sources, I would be very grateful!

my background is psychology and I've only dipped a toe in anthropology but I would rather be thrown in the deep end and figure it out from there.

this has happened several times where I am in a group and I say something that's still pretty tame, but leans in the direction of criticizing psychiatry. that's all it takes, and then people start losing their shit, hurling "take your meds" and "go to therapy"'s left and right. or people just stop responding to you, and try to ice you out. this happened to me recently with a group that I started! man, this is how the system keeps winning. if you go against it, you are on a lonely fucking path. I'm grateful for the folks here, y'all make me feel human at least. I dream of creating a "pathology-free" group of some kind, but I don't know exactly what that might look like yet.

I love practices like yoga and qi gong, but I do feel like the fact that I lack an ancestral tie to these practices changes the spiritual energy of them. they feel borrowed, which is still lovely when it feels willingly given by someone who is knowledgable about the history of the practice and shares it humbly. but I'd still like to feel more ancestral connection as a part of my movement practice.

dance is the first thing that comes to mind, but full dancing is out of reach for me at my present experience of disability. I could do "baby" versions of dance practices (this is what I tend to do with yoga and qi gong anyway), and I might! but I was curious whether or not other folks had ideas or recommendations around slower, perhaps lesser known movement practices in Celtic traditions (Irish or Scottish in particular). thanks all!