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Hsu (2008) indicates that “where the medical profession practices and styles between them, and by implication
strove for a monopoly of health care, medical more differentiated strategies adopted by patients in
anthropologists pointed out the existence of pluralism. search of cure.” Adapting the concept phenomena of
The concept of medical pluralism played an important medical pluralism has gained momentum and favor in
role for anthropologists as a tool to analyze medical applied health research.
phenomena from cultural perspectives.” Among such
medical anthropologists who examined cultural aspects of In summary, adapting is the key to human survival at its
medical phenomena in regional areas, Charles Leslie primitive and flourishing states. The concept of
(1976, 80) warrants mention as a pathfinder who coined individuals adapting to their environment is paramount
the term ‘medical pluralism,’ which describes the for mental/spiritual, social and physical homeostasis. The
coexistence of biomedicine and traditional indigenous path to enable individuals to adapt to their definition of
medicine while mentioning that “medical systems are health is from the health care system-provider-facilitator
pluralistic structures of different kinds of practitioners interacting with individuals and population cultures
and institutional norms.” collecting and providing feedback to continually improve
the quality and efficiency of adapting for health. n
It was suggested the studies using the terms “medical
pluralism” should be replaced with the terms “medical References
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Hsu (2008): “Over the last few decades, the concept has
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or underplaying the importance of political, economic, Translated by Carolyn R. Fawcett Oct 28, 1991 Zone Books, New York
structural and power issues, as well as for (implicitly)
Editorial, The Lancet (2009) What is health? The ability to adapt. 373
reproducing a ‘monolithic’ concept of biomedicine. (9666) , pp. 781.
Rather than invoking a clearly bounded culture concept
Hirsch, Eric. (1995). “Introduction. Landscape: Between Place and
with a culturally adept healer in its center, the notion of Space.” In The Anthropology of Landscape. Perspectives on Place and
‘medical landscapes’ implies social processes, relatedness Space, edited by Eric Hirsch and Michael O'Hanlon, 1-30. Oxford:
and movements between foregrounds and backgrounds, Clarendon Press.
and across boundaries. Thus, it promises to provide a Hsu, Elisabeth. (2008). “Medical Pluralism.” In International
theoretical framing for future studies on theme that until Encyclopedia of Public Health: J-O. Vol. 4., edited by Kris
recently has remained central to medical anthropology, Heggenhougen and Stella Quah, 316–321. Amsterdam: Elsevier
the study of ‘medical pluralism’. “Moreover, within recent Krause, Kristine, Gabriele Alex, and David Parkin. (2012). Medical
debates on medical pluralism the focus has moved, as Knowledge, Therapeutic Practice and Processes of Diversification.
Krause et al. (2012) put it, from “an understanding of G€ottingen: Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic
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Dr. David Parkin (2013) stated, “Medical diversity refers
to more than medical pluralism, if by the latter is meant a
number of medical traditions coexisting relatively
insulated from each other within a region. Diversification
is more than this and implies mutual borrowing of ideas,

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