The African Transformation of Western Medicine and the Dynamics of Global Cultural Change

Beginning in the colonial era, Western biomedicine has radically transformed African medical beliefs and practices. Conversely, in using Western biomedicine, Africans have also transformed it.The African Transformation of Western Medicine and the Dynamics of Global Cultural Exchangecontends that contemporary African medical systems-no less "biomedical" than Western medicine-in fact greatly enrich and expand the notion of biomedicine, reframing it as a global cultural form deployed across global networks of cultural exchange. The book analyzes biomedicine as a complex and dynamic socio-cultural form, the conceptual premises of which make it necessarily subject to ongoing change and development as it travels the globe. David Baronov captures the complexities of this cultural exchange by using world-systems analysis in a way that places global cultural processes on equal footing with political and economic processes. In doing so, he both allows the story of Africa's transformation of "Western" biomedicine to be told and offers new insights into the capitalist world system.

David Baronov is an Associate Professor of Sociology at St. John Fisher College.