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https://www.scribd.com/document/544304613/The-Expressiveness-of-the-Body-and-the-Divergence-of-Greek-and-Chinese-Medicine-Zone-Books-Shigehisa-Kuriyama# [not a full book]
https://archive.org/details/expressivenessof0000kuri
The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine (Zone Books) Paperback – March 15, 2002
by Shigehisa Kuriyama (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars 34 ratings
The true structure and workings of the human body are, we casually assume, everywhere the same, a universal reality. But when we look into the past, our sense of reality wavers: accounts of the body in diverse medical traditions often seem to describe mutually alien, almost unrelated worlds.
Print length
344 pages
March 15, 2002
Editorial Reviews
Review
."..this is an astonishingly original reading of early medicine in China and the West, yet one that builds its case with scrupulous scholarship. . . . A great achievement!"--Arthur Kleinman, Harvard Medical School
“Kuriyama frames the contrast between medicine in China and in the West with a brilliant and marvelously detailed analysis of ancient Greek and Chinese medicine. All told, this is an astonishingly original reading of early medicine.”― Arthur Kleinman, Harvard Medical School and Harvard University
“Kuriyama offers the reader not just a history of ancient beliefs about the body, but an inspiring account of different ways of inhabiting the world.”― Geoffrey Lloyd, University of Cambridge
“A masterpiece of historical scholarship. Beautifully written, the book challenges our conventional ways of seeing and discerning reality.”― Günter B. Risse, University of California, San Francisco
Read more
Product details
Publisher : Zone Books; Revised ed. edition (March 15, 2002)
Language : English
Paperback : 344 pages
4.4 out of 5 stars 34 ratings
Shigehisa Kuriyama
Customer reviews
4.4 out of 5 stars
Top reviews from other countries
Fergus Byrne
5.0 out of 5 stars The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine
https://www.scribd.com/document/544304613/The-Expressiveness-of-the-Body-and-the-Divergence-of-Greek-and-Chinese-Medicine-Zone-Books-Shigehisa-Kuriyama# [not a full book]
https://archive.org/details/expressivenessof0000kuri
The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine (Zone Books) Paperback – March 15, 2002
by Shigehisa Kuriyama (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars 34 ratings
The true structure and workings of the human body are, we casually assume, everywhere the same, a universal reality. But when we look into the past, our sense of reality wavers: accounts of the body in diverse medical traditions often seem to describe mutually alien, almost unrelated worlds.
How can perceptions of something as basic and intimate as the body differ so?
In this book, Shigehisa Kuriyama explores this fundamental question, elucidating the fascinating contrasts between the human body described in classical Greek medicine and the body as envisaged by physicians in ancient China.
Revealing how perceptions of the body and conceptions of personhood are intimately linked, his comparative inquiry invites us, indeed compels us, to reassess our own habits of feeling and perceiving.
The Expressiveness of the Body was awarded the 2001 Welch Medal by the American Association for the History of Medicine.
The Expressiveness of the Body was awarded the 2001 Welch Medal by the American Association for the History of Medicine.
Print length
344 pages
March 15, 2002
Editorial Reviews
Review
."..this is an astonishingly original reading of early medicine in China and the West, yet one that builds its case with scrupulous scholarship. . . . A great achievement!"--Arthur Kleinman, Harvard Medical School
“Kuriyama frames the contrast between medicine in China and in the West with a brilliant and marvelously detailed analysis of ancient Greek and Chinese medicine. All told, this is an astonishingly original reading of early medicine.”― Arthur Kleinman, Harvard Medical School and Harvard University
“Kuriyama offers the reader not just a history of ancient beliefs about the body, but an inspiring account of different ways of inhabiting the world.”― Geoffrey Lloyd, University of Cambridge
“A masterpiece of historical scholarship. Beautifully written, the book challenges our conventional ways of seeing and discerning reality.”― Günter B. Risse, University of California, San Francisco
Read more
Product details
Publisher : Zone Books; Revised ed. edition (March 15, 2002)
Language : English
Paperback : 344 pages
4.4 out of 5 stars 34 ratings
Shigehisa Kuriyama
Customer reviews
4.4 out of 5 stars
Top reviews from other countries
Fergus Byrne
5.0 out of 5 stars The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 28, 2014
Verified Purchase
It is a great book. Everybody should read it. The chapter on muscularity and identity should be read by anybody who pursues figurative studies of the body.
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Maria K.
2.0 out of 5 stars interesting but technical
Verified Purchase
It is a great book. Everybody should read it. The chapter on muscularity and identity should be read by anybody who pursues figurative studies of the body.
One person found this helpfulReport abuse
Maria K.
2.0 out of 5 stars interesting but technical
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 15, 2015
Verified Purchase
The book is really interesting but turned out to be rather technical
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Swox
5.0 out of 5 stars Quintessential reading for anyone interested in the body or the history of medicine.Reviewed in Canada on March 12, 2018
Verified Purchase
Maybe my favourite academic book of all time.
Verified Purchase
The book is really interesting but turned out to be rather technical
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Swox
5.0 out of 5 stars Quintessential reading for anyone interested in the body or the history of medicine.Reviewed in Canada on March 12, 2018
Verified Purchase
Maybe my favourite academic book of all time.
Achieves the rare feat of being both brilliant and easy to read. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the body and/or the history of medicine, whether they're academics or non-academics.
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The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine
by
4.29 · Rating details · 183 ratings · 15 reviews
Feb 10, 2011Dagezi rated it it was amazing
If I could give this 4.5 stars I would. Exhibit 1 in the case that I really should read Birth of the Clinic already. Fascinating and unusual book this is. That expert on TCM whose name begins with a U (slips my mind) (4/12: Paul Unschuld) says Kuriyama plays a bit fast and loose with the Chinese side of things, but even if he is overstating the separation of the two traditions, the book is still a remarkably cool thought experiment. And a real pleasure to read, real poetry in places.
For me the most interesting issues raised are twofold--
first the difference in the way the Greeks and the Chinese reconciled disagreements between anatomy and sensation.
In the former case, the interior structure of the (dead) body is taken as the ultimate reality
in the later, the sensations and connections of the surface of the living body trump internal structure.
This difference derives in part from the differing status of dissection and anatomy in both traditions.
Kuriyama makes a compelling case for putting the anatomizing gaze at the root of western knowledges about the body. Some truly fascinating discussions of the similarities between early dissectors and that set of priests who measured the future by way of animal entrails. Anybody, med anth types, etc., able to recommend a good history of science or med anth take on the history of dissection and anatomy in the west? (4/12: the Body Emblazoned by Sawday is now on the to read list)
Revisited 4/12 -- this is a five star book. One that stays with you. (less)
Revisited 4/12 -- this is a five star book. One that stays with you. (less)
Sep 28, 2017Samantha rated it liked it
Shelves: for-school, non-fiction, psychology, philosophy, science, history
This is an interesting read that those in the medical field could benefit from. It discusses how ancient Chinese medicine differed from that of Greek and Western medicine, which provides important insights to how culture and approaches to medicine and health are different.
As someone who studies communication, this book was also interesting.
“My thesis is that the history of conceptions of the body must be understood in conjunction with a history of conceptions of communication” (Kuriyama, 2002, p. 107).
Communication theories and concepts are echoed throughout the book though they are never explicitly spelled out. It almost felt like a book of examples of communication concepts through the perspective of medicine and different cultures. However, at some points the book seems repetitive with how many examples there are. For me, I felt like saying, "okay, I got the point. Move on."
However, I know for non-communication studies people, the concepts being introduced were unusual in that they had never considered some of these concepts (like orientalism, fundamental attribution error, fields of experience, etc.) so the extra time and effort spent discussing it in the book was more worthwhile for these individuals. (less)
As someone who studies communication, this book was also interesting.
“My thesis is that the history of conceptions of the body must be understood in conjunction with a history of conceptions of communication” (Kuriyama, 2002, p. 107).
Communication theories and concepts are echoed throughout the book though they are never explicitly spelled out. It almost felt like a book of examples of communication concepts through the perspective of medicine and different cultures. However, at some points the book seems repetitive with how many examples there are. For me, I felt like saying, "okay, I got the point. Move on."
However, I know for non-communication studies people, the concepts being introduced were unusual in that they had never considered some of these concepts (like orientalism, fundamental attribution error, fields of experience, etc.) so the extra time and effort spent discussing it in the book was more worthwhile for these individuals. (less)
Dec 20, 2021Casey rated it really liked it
Read for History 103F, Fall 2021.
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The conclusion that Kuriyama draws in The Expressiveness of the Body is that task of discovering the truth of the body is inseparable from the challenge of discovering the truth about people, and as such, different peoples experience their bodies distinctly because we conceive our senses -- in particular, those of touch, sight, and hearing -- differently to understand what is fundamentally the same reality. Communication philology and medical epistemology is really at the heart of Kuriyama's book, which is a refreshing departure from many academic papers on similar topics due to the digestibility and ease at which his almost-poetic prose breaks down the key bifurcations in the development of medicine in ancient Greece and China. (less)
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The conclusion that Kuriyama draws in The Expressiveness of the Body is that task of discovering the truth of the body is inseparable from the challenge of discovering the truth about people, and as such, different peoples experience their bodies distinctly because we conceive our senses -- in particular, those of touch, sight, and hearing -- differently to understand what is fundamentally the same reality. Communication philology and medical epistemology is really at the heart of Kuriyama's book, which is a refreshing departure from many academic papers on similar topics due to the digestibility and ease at which his almost-poetic prose breaks down the key bifurcations in the development of medicine in ancient Greece and China. (less)
Sep 21, 2021Lukey Ellsberg rated it it was amazing
One of the best books I’ve read this year. I would recommend it to academic or popular audiences interested in medical epistemologies. The scholarship is close and compelling, the arguments drawn carefully but with such infectious enthusiasm. I found my heart leaping as one idea forks into the next. I’ve heard some say this isn’t properly a work of “history of science.” Maybe it’s more accurately a work of evidentiary phenomenology, but I would still call it a masterwork of conceptual history.
Jul 05, 2019Scott rated it it was amazing
This is one of the best books on Chinese Medicine. It compares the development of the "felt body" in Ancient Greece and in Chinese Cosmology and then shows how we got where we are today by looking at both art and medicine through history. Very highly recommended for students of the martial arts. (less)
Nov 10, 2020Shuhui Shen rated it really liked it
Reconsidering the comparative methodology...
Jan 14, 2011Archer rated it it was amazing
This book for me was remarkable, as it is always interesting to read the alternate reality of your own. (social imaginary) The body, of course, concerns our deepest understandings, and the ways in which these manifested later in Eastern and Western philosophy are fascinating; a simple example of which being
- the synergistic dominance of objective thought in the western sphere vis-a-vis anatomy vs.
- the more subjective but still constructed reality of the Eastern body.
One is more about particles, one is more about waves. They both had results. We now have to understand the two as one.
The whole thing was fascinating to me. One of those books you pick up off a random shelf and open to a random spot just to test its worth. An answer is revealed, so you go on. Lots of pencil lines. Maybe I'll write a longer review later but I'd say if you're looking for the answer of how the world came to be as it is today, (as we understand it) this is a piece of the puzzle. (less)
The whole thing was fascinating to me. One of those books you pick up off a random shelf and open to a random spot just to test its worth. An answer is revealed, so you go on. Lots of pencil lines. Maybe I'll write a longer review later but I'd say if you're looking for the answer of how the world came to be as it is today, (as we understand it) this is a piece of the puzzle. (less)
Very interesting approach to comparing, but mostly contrasting eastern and western medicine. Looks at what it means to examine the body in both cultures. What it means to be in the body. Why are greek visual representations of man so muscle bound and chinese ones so paunchy and chilled out?Very good if you are interested in the history of medicine, eastern medicine. The text is academic, full of citations, but it is not hard to read.
Sep 05, 2009Nancy Nordenson rated it liked it
This book is an analysis of ancient Greek vs Chinese medicine in terms of their different perceptions of--and ways of perceiving--the body. Kuriyama's extensive discussion about pulse-taking in each of these traditions was fascinating, and I think I will always have it in mind when a clinician reaches for my wrist. ...more
Feb 12, 2008Keisuke rated it it was amazing
Why the expressiveness of the body was so different between the East and the West? The brain was nothing but just a gray chunk of meat to the Oriental medicine. People didn't pay much attention to muscles that were not depicted in medical pictures in the East. Almost no anatomy. However, the oriental medicine is really effective. Why? The answer can be found in your body? Maybe.... (less)
Oct 12, 2008Michele is currently reading it
Very cool concept of comparing the view of the body from the different systems, but it's one of those hard-to-digest books with language of a beef-jerky style. It's probably one I won't ever fully read. (less)
I had no interest in Chinese history and Chinese medicine until I read this book.
