Religion, Medicine and the Human Embryo

Garrett, Frances Mary
Religion, medicine and the human embryo in Tibet / Frances Garrett. - London ; New York : Routledge, 2008. - xvi, 208 S. : Ill. - (Routledge critical studies in Buddhism)
Hochschulschrift. Teilw. zugl.: Charlottesville (Va.), Univ. of Virginia, Diss., 2004 unter dem Titel: Narratives of embryology : becoming human in Tibetan literature
ISBN 978-0-415-44115-5 / 0-415-44115-3 (Print-Ausg.)
ISBN 978-0-203-92742-7 / 0-203-92742-7 (Ebook)
£ 75,00

Beschreibung
This book explores the cultural history of embryology in Tibet, in culture, religion, art and literature, and what this reveals about its medicine and religion. Filling a significant gap in the literature this is the first in-depth exploration of Tibetan medical history in the English language. It reveals the prevalence of descriptions of the development of the human body - from conception to birth - found in all forms of Tibetan religious literature, as well as in medical texts and in art.
   By analysing stories of embryology, Frances Garrett explores questions of cultural transmission and adaptation: How did Tibetan writers adapt ideas inherited from India and China for their own purposes? What original views did they develop on the body, on gender, on creation, and on life itself?
The transformations of embryological narratives over several centuries illuminate key turning points in Tibetan medical history, and its relationship with religious doctrine and practice. Embryology was a site for both religious and medical theorists to contemplate profound questions of being and becoming, where topics such as pharmacology and nosology were left to shape secular medicine. The author argues that, in terms of religion, stories of human development comment on embodiment, gender, socio-political hierarchy, religious ontology, and spiritual progress. Through the lens of embryology, this book examines how these concerns shift as Tibetan history moves through the formative 'renaissance' period of the twelfth through to the seventeenth centuries. [Verlagsinformation]

Inhalt
List of figures. xiii
List of tables. xiv
Acknowledgments. xv
CHAPTER 1. BECOMING HUMAN IN TIBETAN LITERATURE
   Medicine, science and religion in European thought. 2
   Models of comparison: science and religion, science and Buddhism. 4
   Narratives of embryology. 8
   Caveats and approaches. 12
   Medical epistemology and the embryological narrative. 13
   Narrative, identity and history. 17
CHAPTER 2. THEORIES OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
   Indian medical sources for human development. 23
   Early human development in Indian Nikāya and Mahāyāna Buddhism. 26
   Practicing gestation in Indian Vajrayāna Buddhism. 31
   Chinese traditions of "nurturing the fetus". 33
   Cultural inheritance and adaptation. 35
CHAPTER 3. INTERACTIONS BETWEEN MEDICINE AND RELIGION IN TIBET
   Eurasian cosmopolitanism versus Indian Buddhism: a historiographical conflict. 37
   Linking medical history with Buddhism. 41
   Striking the path: organizing the influx of Indian culture. 42
   The heyday of medical scholasticism. 47
   Locating human development in the narrative of Tibetan history. 53
CHAPTER 4. THE FETAL BODY, GENDER AND THE NORMAL
   Functional physiologies: humoral and digestive systems. 60
   The circulatory system. 64
   Characterizing embodiment: gendered, defective and "normal" bodies. 71
   Female physiology. 76
   Encountering the narrative's central subject. 84
CHAPTER 5. GESTATION AND THE RELIGIOUS PATH
   Conception and debates over the sequence of fetal development. 88
   Fetal development in tantric sources. 96
   The fetal experience of conception, gestation and birth. 102
   Practicing the exoteric path. 106
   Esoteric practices for closing the womb's door. 109
   Purifying death, the intermediate state and rebirth. 112
   The embryologic vision of reality. 117
   Inconsistency, ignorance, or innovation? 121
CHAPTER 6. GROWTH, CHANGE AND CONTINUITY
   Karma and the Buddhist problem of causality. 128
   Causality, the individual, and the cosmos. 130
   The power of karma in the context of conception and development. 136
   The shaky foundations of karma's role in becoming human. 140
   The role of the elements in causing growth. 142
   Attributing causality to winds. 146
   Growth caused by the power of gnosis. 148
   The forces of creation. 150
EPILOGUE: HISTORIOGRAPHY RECAPITULATES EMBRYOLOGY
Notes. 164
Appendix. 188
Bibliography. 191
Index. 205

Autorin

FRANCES GARRETT is Assistant Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto. Her research addresses doctrinal, ritual and textual practice in Tibetan cultures. Faculty profile; Homepage.

Quellen: Routledge; Barnes & Noble; Google Books; Amazon (UK); WorldCat.
Schlagwörter: Tibet; Medizin; Buddhismus; Vajrayana; Embryologie; Medizingeschichte

Rückschau
Die Dissertation der Verfasserin haben wir bereits in Indologica erfaßt:
[23.10.2005] Garrett: Narratives of embryology