Ayurveda, Biomedicine, and Indigenous Medicine

The first objective of this research was to examine and discuss three cultural medical discourses belonging to three different cultural contexts: India (Ayurveda), the United States (Biomedicine) and Colombia (Indigenous Medicine) with the purpose of establishing similarities, differences, and interactions among them. The objective of the comparison was to sought out the fundamental ramifications of those differences and to draw conclusion regarding the inadequate manner in which analysis of Western medicine treats the analysis of so-called "traditional" medicine. The second objective was to look for such links among language, social sciences and medicine, by specifically using as its basis, a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) which is a contemporary perspective that combines theoretical and methodological aspects about the relationship between language and society.