Brunei Malay Traditional Medicine: Persistence in the Face of Western Medicine and Islamic Orthodoxy

By Virginie Roseberg

This book fills a gap in the literature on the subject of Brunei Malay traditional medicine, and provides valuable first-hand ethnographic data on the question of continuity and transformation of Brunei Malay traditional medicine in the face of assaults by representatives of Western medicine and Islamic reformists, who both regard traditional healing knowledge as “irrational, inefficient and superstitious”.

Roseberg also contributes new arguments to the heated debates about the limitations of the biomedical model. Presenting the constellation of factors that possibly contribute to the persistent popularity of traditional healers among some Brunei Malays, despite the increasing availability and pre-eminence of biomedicine, especially for the treatment of certain chronic diseases or psychosomatic disorders, or for “supernatural” illnesses that are excluded from the scope of biomedicine.

In addition, this book analyses the reasons for the intensification of Islamic themes in modern Brunei and examines the impact of the increasing Islamization of the Sultanate on Brunei Malay traditional healing practices that are characterized by an admixture of animistic, Indic, Persian and Islamic elements. It also evaluates the degree of success of the relentless efforts of the Bruneian religious authorities to dissuade Brunei Malays from resorting to “heretical” healing practices and encourage them to resort instead to “proper” Islamic medical treatment.

This book argues that the process of eradication of many “unorthodox” practices, such as the prescription of amulets and medicinal plants which are believed to have intrinsic magical powers, and the practice of sorcery, is far from being completed, because these practices have been responding for centuries to the social, personal and psychological needs of the Brunei Malays that Western medicine, religion and Islamic medicine fail to fulfill.

Paperback

ISBN 979-1-929900-22-0

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