• Journal of Haehwa Medicine
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.1-4
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• 2015

Learning can be defined as its objects, main question for the objects, and its unique way to organize all the knowledge acquired as the results of the question. From the point of view like this, Traditional Korean Medicine(TKM) can be defined as learning for human body and its functions, health and diseases based on the theory of the Yin and Yang and of the five elements. Nowaday Many papers based on laboratory work publish for the name of scientization of TKM, but from the viewpoint of definition of learning, they have a problem that there is no basic theory. If TKM could be communicated with western natural science, it has to be solved. And oriental physiology has a same object and same questions with western physiology, so oriental physiology can be useful to make a bridge between TKM and western natural science.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.758-769
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• 2010

This is a preliminary study for examining the identity issue of the current Traditional Korean Medicine(TKM). In order to examine the identity issue, it is necessary to understand "what" current TKM is. The current TKM has been formed in the complicated historical settings and the newly formed academic geography of modern times, completely different from those of the traditional era. This paper took diachronic and synchronic approaches in order to understand the current TKM. In the process of modernization and scientization of the TKM-which had begun in the early twentieth century-the western medical knowledge merged into the TKM. Also, as the College education of the TKM began after the Liberation from the Japanese colonial rule, the TKM scholars accepted the western medical department system to develop the TKM into professional knowledge. Meanwhile, since the late 1970s, the TKM has been influenced by the modern Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and the TCM knowledge also merged into the TKM. And recently, the research methodology of the complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), and the clinical research technique of the western medicine-like Evidence based Medicine (EBM)-are affecting the scientization and clinical study of the TKM. The current TKM has been formed as a result of the hybridization of these different knowledges. These changes in the TKM were inevitable for the survival of it in the fast changing world. But these changes brought with them problems. Among those, the identity issue is the most important and crucial.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.111-125
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• 2012

Objectives : One of the fundamental premises of medical anthropology is the interconnectedness of medicine and society. Recent ethnographies of medicine demonstrate that the interconnectedness of the social and the medical not just evokes relatedness of the two parties, but also emphasizes the agency of the constituents, mutually shaping and being shaped. Against this backdrop, this study attempts to anthropologically investigate Korean medicine in South Korea and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in China. Methods : The findings are based on anthropological studies of East Asian medicine employing long-term fieldwork about Korean Medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine. Results : TCM is characterized by standardization, hospitalization, and scientization, by which simplification, collectivization, and biomedicalization prevail in contemporary traditional medicine in China. In contrast, Korean medicine is characterized by diversity, care delivery by individual private clinics, and a considerable distance from biomedicine. To understand the divergence of the two East Asian medicines, one should consider the social contexts intervening into the medical contents, such as the role of the state and dominant discourses in given historical periods. Conclusions : Korean medicine in South Korea and TCM in China demonstrate well the hybridity of the social and the medical, suggesting that, for more comprehensive understanding of the medical, the social should be paid attention to.