Eastern Medicines and Religions
The Anthropology Research Group at Oxford on Eastern Medicines and Religions (ArgO-EMR) promotes ethnographic research by students and scholars who are interested in the anthropology of Eastern medicines and religions in a) popular rural, b) institutionalised urban and c) transnational settings. ArgO-EMR emphasizes long-term fieldwork and local language competencies. It investigates medical and religious knowledge and practice embedded within their ecologies and histories.
Eastern medicines and religions have family resemblances – while each is specific to the cultural context in which it is practised - but they are often studied in isolation in separate research institutions and environments. ArgO-EMR aims to offer a meeting ground for researchers who have already experience with or wish to engage in the study of Eastern medicines and religions across geographical areas and theoretical perspectives. It holds a fortnightly seminar, a fortnightly reading group, and furthermore organises once a year an international workshop. The ArgO-EMR seminars in HT11 on 'Ethnobotanical research in Asia' are co-convened by the post-doctoral Marie Curie fellow Dr Gabriel Lefevre.
The current post-doctoral researcher within ArgO-EMR is Dr Katherine Swancutt (working within the three year AHRC project on Icons and Innovation in Southwest China's religious texts).
