Healing by Hand: Manual Medicine and Bonesetting in Global Perspective
Edited by Kathryn S. Oths, (University of Alabama) and Servando Z. Hinojosa, (University of Texas, Pan American)
Anthropologists have routinely overlooked the practice of body therapists, one of the primary providers of "traditional" medicine. Healing by Hand presents the first cross-cultural primer on manual medicine studies. As a particular modality of healing, manual medicine has reached a high level of popularity and importance as its practitioners investigate the body's important capacities for self-healing. The authors describe how manual medicine takes numerous forms across the world's communities, in urban and rural, as well as Western and non-Western, contexts, in individual and community lives. Though frequently overshadowed and challenged by allopathic practitioners, body workers continue to help the sick and injured reach their health goals. In this book, the individual ethnographic analyses of manual medicine describe beliefs and practices about healing, physical and psychological states, and the relation between culture and health. Given the therapeutic training of many of the authors, Healing by Hand should be a fascinating resource for manual practitioners of western medicine, including massage therapists, physical therapists, chiropractors, and osteopaths, as well as those with traditional training. It is especially recommended for various courses such as Medical Anthropology, Health and Human Culture, Technology and the Developing World, Sociology of Health, International Health, and Health Care Systems.
List of Contributors: Marc Weill ; Simon Leyson; Isaac K. Nyamongo; Kathryn S. Oths; Eric Jacobson; Robert Anderson and Norman Klein; Servando Z. Hinojosa; John O'Malley; Jennifer Minor, Miranda Warburton and H. Vincent Black; Hans A. Baer; Ian Coulter; Robert Anderson; Susan Walkley; Carol H. Browner
A Tooth From the Tiger's Mouth
By Tom Bisio
For centuries, Chinese martial arts masters have kept their highly prized remedies for common but debilitating injuries as carefully guarded secrets, calling such precious and powerful knowledge" a tooth from the tiger's mouth" Now, for the first time, these deeply effective methods are revealed to Westerners anxious to find alternative ways to treat the acute and chronic injuries experienced by any active person.
While many books outline the popular teachings of traditional Chinese medicine, only this one offers step-by-step instructions for treating injuries. The book explains the complete range of healing strategies and provides a Chinese first-aid kit to help the reader fully recover from every mishap - cuts, sprains, breaks, dislocations, bruises, muscle tears, tendonitis and much more. He teaches readers how to:
- Examine and diagnose injuries
- Prepare and apply herbal formulas
- Assemble a portable kit for emergencies
- Fully recuperate with strengthening exercises and healing dietarty advice
- Buy ingredients and preparations - both locally and on the Internet
Comprehensive and easy to follow, with 158 drawings to illustrate both the treatment strategies and the strengthening exercises, this one-of-a-kind guidebook will finally give readers complete access to the powerful healing secrets of the great Chinese warriors.
The Xingyi Boxing Manual
by Jing, Yunting
For the first time being published in English, this treatise was written in China during the 1930's before World War Two shattered the world as it was known. A product of generations of bodyguard and mercenary fighting academies, this book recorded the training phrases and poems that guided the students of these fighting schools. The martial art of Xingyi was famous for its clear minded but unstoppable practitioners, many of whom graduated to become leading caravan guards or to enter into the private security business in pre-war China, where police services were virtually non-existent. This treatise remains an interesting record and invaluable guide for today's practitioner of this traditional martial art.
