A few due date reminders for this week: 

Choice Projects

Your choice project is due by this evening, Sunday, April 5th

Make sure you’ve reviewed the assignment descriptions, including the directions for submission. Some assignments simply require text and images, while others you must embed your outside media directly into your dedicated EduBlog page.

Group Discussions

Group Discussion #5 is due Sunday, April 12th and will cover the topics of Mindfulness Meditation and Ayurveda. 

Transplant Ayurveda in the United States

This week’s first reading explores Transplant Ayurveda. In contrast to Traditional Chinese Medicine, Buddhist folk healing, and other Asian ethnomedicine modalities we’ve discussed, Ayurveda’s spread in the United States is related to its specific marketing to and consumption by white Americans, rather than originating in cultural enclaves of Asian-American immigrants and then permeating out (Reddy, 99).* 

*It’s always tricky when running a syllabus for the first time, to notice the gaps and mistakes in reading assignments. I meant to include a reading that focuses on the use of Ayurveda and religious healing within South Asian Indian-American communities, but I included the wrong details and didn’t catch the mistake until it was too late to correct. If you’re interested, you can find the reading posted in iCollege: “Health, Faith Traditions, and South Asian Indians in North America”, Prakash N. Desai, Religion and Healing in America. 

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

At the center of this reading is the Ayurveda practitioner-providers: should they present themselves as medical practitioners compatible with the biomedical system (and thus pursue licensure), or lean into the metaphysical healing qualities that attract New Age sensibilities (and now the broader public) including a resistance to the medical mainstream, a preoccupation with things deemed “natural”, and a desire for “holistic” approach. 

“Asian Medicine in America: The Ayurvedic Case”. Reddy, S (pg 97-120) – iCollege

• How does Ayurveda’s development differ from other Asian healing transplants in America? 
• What are the main influencers on the development of transplant Ayurveda in the US? 
• What is the main professional dilemma facing Ayurveda practitioners? Describe this dynamic. 
• What has the West typically focused on in their interest in Asian medicine? What are the critiques of these approaches? 
• How does classic Ayurveda different from transnational Ayurveda? 
• Where is transnational Ayurveda usually accessed (located)? Why? 
• What elements of the holistic health movement influence the development of transplant Ayurveda? What connections do you see to our past readings? 
• How do legal issues related to the “unlawful practice of medicine” effect how transplant Ayurveda is practiced? How it presents itself?
• How have different Ayurveda practitioners circumvented medical licensing issues? 
• Describe the four subtraditions, which aspect of Ayurveda they focus on (meditation, massage, religious healing, etc), and its effect on how they approach licensure. 
• How does the theme of resistance emerge in the practice and representation of transplant Ayurveda?

Vocabulary: 

• Transplant / Transnational Ayurveda
• Classic Ayurveda
• Materia medica
• Humoral diagnostics
• Tripartite system