Korean medicine in Kazakhstan: Ideas, practices and patients

Abstract

Since the 1990s, after gaining independence by the Republic of Kazakhstan, various complementary therapies have grown rapidly there. Korean medicine in its several forms belongs among them. There is an important population of Korean deportees from Stalinist times, but this paper will show that the various forms of Korean medicine practised in Almaty, Kazakhstan's former capital, do not primarily cater for ethnic Koreans. Rather, as the paper demonstrates, it is important to see that there are different forms of Korean medicine attractive to clientele from different strata of society. Thus, there are, apart from the most traditional treatment practised at the Korean-Kazakhstani clinic in Almaty, two other newly invented modifications of Korean medicine: soo-jok and soo-ji . The paper embeds Korean medicine into the context of the drastic deterioration of the state health care system and general dissatisfaction with its services, on the one hand, and a generally supportive attitude of government authorities to complementary medicine, on the other. My empirical data suggest that in Kazakhstan people of different ethnic background, sex, age and education choose complementary therapies. The growing popularity of these therapies is not only attributed to public confidence in the methods that are perceived as 'traditional' but more importantly to the extremely difficult economic conditions which have made people search for cheaper treatment. The paper presents data that are critical of a purely culturalist interpretation of explaining the arrival of Korean medicine in Kazakhstan and suggests that it is the political economy of Korean medicine as a non-costly therapy which has made it attractive to a wide range of clients.

Prevalence and factors associated with the use of alternative (folk) medicine practitioners in 8 countries of the former Soviet Union

“…Against a backdrop of growing impoverishment where out-of-pocket payments for conventional medical care are now widespread and where ‘unaffordability’ is the major reason for forgoing needed treatment in some of our study countries [26], complementary medicine [35] and traditional healers [36] may be comparatively cheap – possibly linked to the tradition in this region that users themselves should determine the exact form of reimbursement [19]. However, the results from the current study seem to contradict this notion as possessing greater wealth was associated with a significantly higher likelihood of using a non-biomedical practitioner for almost half of the symptoms.…”

Mentally ill or chosen by spirits? ‘Shamanic illness’ and the revival of Kazakh traditional medicine in post-Soviet Kazakhstan

“…There is an apparent multiplicity of healing methods that have developed since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and their relations with biomedicine are shaped by complex economic, social and political factors. This phenomenon is, however, understudied apart from a few anthropological works (Hohmann 2007(Hohmann , 2010bPenkala-Gawecka 2002). More attention has been paid to spiritual healing, that is, healing with the help of spirits, 1 which has been discussed mainly in the context of 'everyday Islam' as a part of what is locally perceived as 'Muslimness' (Kehl-Bodrogi 2008;Privratsky 2001;Rasanayagam 2006).…”