This thesis explores ancient Egyptian descriptions of sicknesses of the inner body, the concepts used to understand them, and the trends in associated therapeutic applications for healing. It... Show moreThis thesis explores ancient Egyptian descriptions of sicknesses of the inner body, the concepts used to understand them, and the trends in associated therapeutic applications for healing. It concludes that the ancient Egyptian system of understanding recorded in writings—while somewhat obscured as the surviving texts were never intended to be descriptive of ideas—can be compared to other ways of thinking and categorising sickness experiences as found in other written cultures. Especially in terms of how such ideas are constructed and how therapies are associated with such concepts. Similarities can be observed in terms of core concepts and associated therapeutic applications recorded in cuneiform compendia of comparable age from Mesopotamia. Rather than using these observations as evidence of an influence of one culture over another, it is argued that these writings include practices and ideas which can instead be considered common to this region of the world, rather than as exclusive and invariably peculiar either the Egyptian and/or Mesopotamian cultures. Show less
The Sundanese people, the largest ethnic group in West Java, have been using traditional medicine for a long time. Known as ubar kampung, Sundanese indigenous knowledge, beliefs and practices of... Show moreThe Sundanese people, the largest ethnic group in West Java, have been using traditional medicine for a long time. Known as ubar kampung, Sundanese indigenous knowledge, beliefs and practices of traditional medicine are based on local people’s knowledge and use of Medicinal, Aromatic, and Cosmetic (MAC) plants. MAC plants have continuously provided the Sundanese community with practical and readily available traditional medicine. Despite the remarkable contribution of indigenous medical knowledge in society, the practical utilisation of indigenous resources at the community level have hardly ever been the focus of research. At the same time, the practice of Sundanese traditional medicine in West Java is also at risk of being lost. To address the lack of studies on indigenous knowledge and its role in patterns of health care utilisation, this study aims to document, describe, and analyse knowledge of, beliefs in, and practices with MAC plants among the Sundanese community members in the environment where biomedicine and traditional medicine are co-existing. While most studies on health care utilisation are currently limited by the use of one medical system - generally speaking, the modern medical system - the present study has a primary focus on utilisation across medical systems. The broad objective of this study is to explore the utilisation of the plural medical system with particular attention to the role of knowledge and practice of ubar kampung by the Sundanese community for the treatment of diabetes mellitus.This study employs the ‘Leiden Ethnosystems’ Approach’ methodology to document and analyse Indigenous Knowledge Systems at the community level which consists of three basic concepts including the Participant’s View (PV), the Field of Ethnological Study (FES) and the Historical Dimension (HD). In the context of health care utilisation behaviour, this approach can also be extended to the concept of medical pluralism in which the traditional, transitional, and modern medical systems co-exist within the community. Comparison of the medical systems in the community provides a better understanding of the determinants of health care utilisation behaviour. Show less