The Rise of Anatolian Medicine: Negotiations over the Traditional and the Modern in Turkish Medicine

The proposed paper explores the relationship between Turkey's recent Traditional and Complementary Medicine (GETAT) policies, practices, and regulations, and their intersection with modern biomedicine. By examining the intersections between these fields, the study provides an analytical perspective on how the boundaries between religious and spiritual healing concepts and medical practices are both reinforced and blurred. It examines how this encounter reshapes the boundaries between traditional healing methods and modern biomedical practices, bringing into focus the complex ways these domains coalesce in contemporary Turkey.

Central to this analysis is the concept of healing as a "boundary object" (Leigh Star and Griesemer, 1989) which is employed here to explore the role of healing in facilitating the formation of new sociotechnical networks. By ethnographically examining how healing functions as a tool for negotiation between heterogeneous elements—spanning the scientific, spiritual, religious, and political realms—the paper analyzes how health practitioners, policymakers, and religious authorities approach these various fields.

The paper also looks at how the growing prominence of GETAT policies institutionalizes alternative health practices while coexisting with the dominant biomedical framework. Through case studies of specific practices and policies, we examine the socio-technical assemblages that emerge and analyze how they contribute to changing perceptions of health, illness, and well-being in Turkey.