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Complementary and Alternative Medicine pp 247–272Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Epistemic Hybridity: TCM’s Knowledge Production in Canadian Contexts

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Abstract

Through ethnographic research with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioners in Canada, this chapter focuses on the knowledge production of a Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) modality—TCM—and how it takes shape and shifts in very complex and sometimes contradictory ways. Conceptualising TCM’s knowledge production in terms of epistemic hybridity reveals highly hybridised TCM knowledges and practices that encompass incompatibilities and intersections with Western science. Thus, ‘epistemic disunity’ (Knorr Cetina, Epistemic cultures: How the sciences make knowledge. Harvard University Press, 1999) occurs within TCM itself and not only in relation to biomedicine or other CAM practices as commonly thought. Epistemic hybridity within TCM highlights the relevance of considering multiple legitimate evidence bases that include diverse ways of knowing and doing rather than the current emphasis on a single biomedical epistemology to evaluate the safety and treatment outcomes of any health modality.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In Canada , ‘integrative healthcare’ is a more recent and increasingly preferred term to describe a non-hierarchical, collaborative interaction between CAM and biomedicine that respects each other’s unique epistemologies (theories and methods). In contrast, ‘integrative medicine’ presupposes a hierarchical relationship between diverse health practices, in which biomedicine co-opts other modalities (Boon et al. 2004).

  2. 2.

    Informal integration of CAM and biomedicine is visible in the diversity of health beliefs and practices within and across different societies—as part of the cultural traditions of certain groups, personal choice, or affordability—regardless of the dominant form of healthcare. At a formal level, different levels of integration of CAM modalities with biomedical care are also apparent worldwide. For example, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and East Indian Ayurvedic Medicine have long co-existed with biomedicine in the provision of mainstream health care, in their respective countries of origin. Even in Western countries like Italy, Germany , France , and England, where biomedicine is the dominant modality of health care, it is not ideologically bound against other health traditions such as humoralism and homeopathy (Hogle 1999; Payer 1990; Whitaker 2003).

  3. 3.

    My research entailed an initial 12 months of fieldwork in two distinct phases (August 2010–December 2011 and January–August 2012) with five TCM practitioners in British Columbia (BC) and five in Ontario (ON). Additionally, from June 2014 to August 2016, I engaged in field research with ten TCM practitioners in BC and ten in Ontario.

  4. 4.

    James received masters of science degrees in clinical immunology and molecular biology and Marilyn received her master’s degree in molecular biology.

  5. 5.

    According to biomedicine , cystic fibrosis (CF) is caused by two copies of a mutated gene that a patient has inherited from both parents. In principle, a CF carrier does not have the disease but can pass it on to their offspring, if their partner is also a CF carrier . By citing the benefits of TCM treatment for CF , Wayne is suggesting that CF patients can potentially live long enough to be carriers of the disease, although they may not be cured from it.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. King’s University College, Western University, Oakville, ON, Canada

    Ana Ning

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  1. Ana Ning
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Humanities and Social Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia

    Caragh Brosnan

  2. School of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland

    Pia Vuolanto

  3. Department of Sociology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Jenny-Ann Brodin Danell

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Ning, A. (2018). Epistemic Hybridity: TCM’s Knowledge Production in Canadian Contexts. In: Brosnan, C., Vuolanto, P., Danell, JA. (eds) Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Health, Technology and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73939-7_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73939-7_10

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