Medical Pluralism
All complex large-scale societies contain multiple health systems, and this phenomenon is considered medical pluralism. As societies become more complex, multiple health systems appear to have emerged with the rise of the division of labor and the division and division of professions that provide professional treatment. Today, the dominant medical system in almost all countries is biomedicine. Some countries have adopted more than one medical system as a formal health policy, including traditional medical practice. Regardless of the formal acceptance, individuals also resort to non-biomedical methods for various reasons and use different systems at the same time.
The World Health Organization conceptualizes the treatment systems and their applications outside biomedicine with the terms Traditional medicine- “A collection of knowledge, skills and practices based on theories, beliefs and experiences that are specific to different cultures, whether explicit or not, used in the prevention, diagnosis, treatment or treatment of physical and mental diseases” and Complementary medicine or Alternative medicine- “refer to a broad range of health care practices that are not part of that country’s own tradition or traditional medicine and are not fully integrated into the dominant health system”. While some of the applications within these concepts are traditional for a certain culture, some of them are relatively new ones that have emerged during industrialization and the examples absorbed by the major regional medical systems create old and traditional perception. In today’s highly mobile and interactive world, different treatment systems, including biomedicine, are influenced by each other, the elements are recruited and the boundaries between them blur. In today’s highly mobile and interactive world, different treatment systems, including biomedicine, are influenced by each other, the elements are recruited and the boundaries between them blur. In this review, it is aimed to discuss whether medical pluralism observed in all complex societies is going to a hybrid system or whether other treatment applications other than biomedicine begin to dissolve in biomedicine or are modernized and reproduced within the system.
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