A Short History of Medicine
If Western medicine is unique, it is because it made the body an object of systematic, scientific study. This is not stating the obvious. The human body has innumerable symbolic meanings, all emotionally charged and often contradictory. Turning it into an object of orderly inquiry and meticulous investigation was no small achievement.
It seems that for some cultures, the body hardly exists at all. Certain aborigines of New Caledonia, in the South Pacific, use the same words to name the parts of the body and the plants or other objects of their natural environment, between which they perceive a resemblance. For instance, the skin of the body and the bark of trees are designated by the same term; the identical word is used for the flesh of human limbs and the pulp of fruits; and the various inner organs share names with the produce that they outwardly resemble. In this society the body is not thought of as an independent entity but is indistinguishable from its surroundings. Similarly, in European societies during the Middle Ages and in certain communities in more recent times, alchemical notions have linked various parts of the body to t ...
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