Drum and stethoscope : integrating ethnomedicine and biomedicine in Bolivia /

As the title indicates, this is a case study of efforts to integrate folk medicine (ethnomedicine) and scientific medicine (biomedicine) in Bolivia. But it is much more, perhaps because of the special qualifications of the author, an anthropologist with long-term interests and substantial work experience in delivering primary health care to the rural and urban poor of Bolivia, who also has a thorough knowledge of this problem worldwide. Bastien cogently assesses the deficiencies of scientific medicine for solving all the problems in extending primary health care to all persons. He discusses the risks and benefits of using folk medicine for this purpose, describes the particular cultural contexts in which efforts to use folk medical specialists to extend primary health care have been attempted, and comments on proposed strategies for joint use of scientific and folk therapies. Bastien makes comparisons with relevant studies in other parts of the world and offers numerous citations of other scholarly works. The bibliography is excellent and the author's acknowledgement of the help of others is generous. This well-written book is a superb example of how scholarly and applied research should coexist. Advanced undergraduate; graduate; faculty; professional. R. Provencher; Northern Illinois University