Continuity and Changes: The Evolution of Rakhine and Burmese Indigenous Medicine

Abstract

Based on my ethnographic fieldworks conducted in Rakhine State (Myanmar), my presentation focuses on the Rakhine indigenous medicine (taing-yin hsaypyinnya). The aim is to outline its origins, its principles, the evolution it underwent following the arrival of biomedicine (ingeleikhsaypyinnya) and, particularly, its partial transformation into a neo-traditional medicine by the hands of the government. Finally, the role these two forms of indigenous medicine play in the everyday life of Rakhine people.