Ecological Health and the Embodiment of Nature: Environmentalism, Social Class and Nature Cure in Modern India

University Of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

Dr. Joseph S. Alter (University of Pittsburg) will conduct research on an alternative medical system in India currently gaining in popularity. The project is designed to understand the correlation between ecology and alternative medicine as an embodied practice, and to analyze the relationship among class status, health and environmentalism in a context of significant social difference and economic disparity. As a popular, broad based form of alternative medicine, Nature Cure involves the therapeutic embodiment of earth, air, water, sunlight and raw foods, thus linking individual biology to the ecology of nature in various ways. To understand the social, political and economic structure of these links, field research will be conducted over thirteen months at three Nature Cure facilities, a training college and two regional libraries in India, where Nature Cure is an authorized, state funded, popular form of alternative treatment. Research will involve participant observation at each treatment facility as well as participant observation in group health regimens established by client/patients in their respective communities. Interviews will be conducted with resident client/patients before and after scheduled therapy sessions. Data will be analyzed by coding interviews for content analysis and comparing the answers given by patients whose economic and occupational status, and specific disease diagnosis, reflects significant differences within the range of "middle-class" distinctions. Data analysis will focus on the question of how "environmentalism" as articulated and practiced in the therapy, is embodied and in what ways embodied environmentalism is understood and experienced differently by different sectors of the population. The significance of the research lies in two areas: examining the cognitive and physical impact of the therapy and determining if its affects are differentially received and experienced by members of different classes and therapeutic settings. The research will be of great interest to those involved with identifying alternative therapies.