“This science is still here” : Ayurveda on New Zealand’s medical periphery

Abstract

This study explores the sense of marginality expressed by those engaged in Ayurveda, a traditional Indian medical system categorised as a Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) in New Zealand. An unregulated modality, practitioners of Ayurveda struggle to negotiate legitimacy and authority not only in the shadow of what they perceive as biomedical dominance from above, but in the context of what is becoming an increasingly commercialised and selectively appropriated system from below. Due in part to the absence of regulation, Ayurveda in New Zealand opens out into a curious field of potentiality in which fragmentation, appropriation, and contestation become its defining characteristics. For practitioners, whether to emphasise the “medical” aspect of Ayurveda, or instead emphasise the “spiritual” or “beautification” aspects, constitutes what Sita Reddy (2002) describes as a “professionalizing dilemma”. Following Foucault’s (1980; 1982; 1997) work on power and subordinated knowledges, I argue that Ayurveda is perpetually reframed by reference to the dominant agent, biomedicine, and that the category of alterity through which Ayurveda is shaped is necessary for my informants’ critique of mainstream biomedical norms and values. Semi-­‐structured interviews and extensive ethnographic observations at various Ayurvedic clinics and one Natural Health College were conducted in Auckland, New Zealand for seven months in 2012. The case study contributes to an anthropological understanding of marginalised and subordinated forms of medical knowledge and has implications for what constitutes legitimate and authoritative practice in a medically pluralistic society. Keywords: Ayurveda, CAM, legitimacy, New Zealand, healing, alterity.