Crafting Potency

Sowa Rigpa Artisanship across the Himalayas

Barbara Gerke, Jan M. A. van der Valk, Tawni L. Tidwell, Calum Blaikie (Autoren)

Buch | Hardcover

256 Seiten

2026
Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing (Verlag)
978-3-98887-012-4 (ISBN)

Noch nicht erschienen (ca. Februar 2026)
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Crafting Potency investigates the intricate interweaving of knowledge, practice, and materials through which potency is sculpted in Sowa Rigpa (Tibetan medicine). Informed by Tibetan medical literature and extensive fieldwork with practitioners (amchis) from Ladakh, Dharamsala, and Kathmandu, the authors explore how potency is understood and manipulated in the making of multi-ingredient medicines. Taking inspiration from Tim Ingold’s ecologically attuned phenomenology and Pamela Smith’s concept of “artisanal epistemologies,” potency is presented as efficacy-in-becoming—a fluid capacity sculpted and layered through skilled artisanship, ritual, and environment, rather than a fixed property of stable substances. Highlighting the deep immersion of amchis in their social, ecological, technical, and spiritual lifeworlds—and exploring what changes when knowledge is transmitted through institutional rather than lineage-based training—the book contributes nuanced practice-based perspectives to the anthropology of craft and the history of science.

Erscheint lt. Verlag	17.2.2026
Zusatzinfo	Illustrationen
Verlagsort	Heidelberg
Sprache	englisch
Maße	155 x 235 mm
Themenwelt	Medizin / Pharmazie
Themenwelt	Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie ► Völkerkunde (Naturvölker)
Schlagworte	Arzneimittelherstellung • Erwerb von Fertigkeiten • Handwerk • Himalaya • Materialität
ISBN-10	3-98887-012-9 / 3988870129
ISBN-13	978-3-98887-012-4 / 9783988870124
Zustand	Neuware