Modernity and the Indigenization of Biomedicine in Rural Bangladesh

• In Event: Transformations in Asian Healthcare: Commercialization, Institutions, and Identities

Abstract

Drawing on ethnographic data, this paper explores the ways in which village doctors have indigenized and popularized biomedicine as capitalist medicine through adaptation to the local health culture in rural Bangladesh. Village doctors are currently the preeminent health care providers in terms of the numbers of villagers whom they serve in the country. They always keep in mind the sociocultural aspects of the locality in which they serve, and the local peoples’ expectations of them in terms of diagnosis and treatment. Moreover, they have absorbed and reformulated knowledge and therapies of the popular health traditions of the locality into their health care practices. Local people value their health advice and services due to their availability and affordability, in contrast to the unavailability and bureaucratic complexity of public health care services. This popular status encourages other private care providers, including private clinics and diagnostic centers to maintain a close connection with village doctors to persuade them to refer their patients in exchange for a commission. Likewise, pharmaceutical companies keep in regular contact with village doctors who advise and sell the drugs of particular companies to patients. It was observed that much unnecessary medical advice is dispensed as a result of the hidden mutually advantageous contacts among village doctors, pharmaceutical companies and diagnostic centres. Thus, the activities of this portion of the health sector are directed at ensuring business for the corporations and high profits for most involved on the supply side.

Author

• Md Faruk Shah, University of Auckland