The creation of medical knowledge: Some problems in interpretation

Abstract

The anthropologist's discourse on medicine depends on a satisfactory understanding of medical knowledge. This means recognizing that: (a) an actor does not know all of his medical facts in the same way; (b) his medical knowledge is recursive: and (c) this knowledge needs to be viewed in terms of the processes by which it is produced rather than in terms of its structure. When processual and structural views of medical knowledge are compared, the latter are found to either bracket out important emotional and ideological determinants, or to trivialize them. Scientific processes for producing medical knowledge can be distinguished from non-scientific ones. But in both cases medical facts are socially constructed. This view of medical science is at odds with empiricist versions. The latter ignore the social determinants of scientific knowledge and, as a consequence of this position, legitimize a technology-centered and theory-centered view of non-Western medicine.