ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we trace some of the many ways that the logics of biomedical practice travel. The case studies we include show how biomedicine travels via changes in medical education curricula (Georges and Davis-Floyd), changes in market demand (Gerrits and Hörbst), via medical education experiences (Benton), and with humanitarian relief efforts-with their ambiguous and sometimes contested results (see the cases from Frankfurter and Redfield). In each of these case studies, we see that biomedicine is not the unassailably dominant force that we might think. Rather, it is a way of being and doing the work of healing that, when confronted with different local contexts, results in a plethora of hybrid ideas among both patients and practitioners. Biomedical elements are grafted onto partial clinical infrastructures, pharmacopeia, and various pre-existing systems of healing (see Karchmer 2010).
