introduction 15
of Descartes and Heidegger nor in a grounded, embodied alternative, people
in Kerala distinguish between body, mind, buddhi (“intellect”), bōdham (“con-
sciousness”), ōrmma (“consciousness/memory”), and ātman (“the true, essential
self ”), idioms that are found in Indian philosophical and religious texts and
that are used by people whom I spoke with in Kerala. Th ese particular idioms
constitute a continuum of increasingly intangible modes of experience—from
the highly tangible body to the completely intangible ātman—in which the
more intangible realms are more highly valued.
Th e nature of the aesthetic quality of healing and the phenomenological
orientation refl ected in the experience of people suff ering illness in Kerala are
historically contingent to a certain degree, and they continually encounter and
counter various infl uences. Th ere is evidence that in the past, more invasive and
painful procedures existed in ayurveda along with gentler methods of treat-
ment, but ayurvedic practitioners now place greater emphasis on less invasive,
nonviolent methods to distinguish their practice from allopathic medicine
(Zimmermann 1992). Meanwhile, people in Kerala are reporting increasing
time pressure due to contemporary work regimens with the consequence that
they say they have less time to undergo these lengthier, nonabrasive therapies.
While Ajit says that ayurvedic doctors want to take people to a higher level,
he also explains that today when one is ill one must get over it quickly in order
to get back to work or school. Ayurvedic therapy can take weeks, but, as Ajit
observes, an allopathic doctor prescribes a pill after asking two or three ques-
tions. In addition, the proliferation of allopathic psychiatric and psychological
discourses in the media and in popular culture corresponds to alterations in
“idioms of distress” in Kerala.^3 More people are complaining of problems like
“tension” or “depression” and using these English terms to describe their affl ic-
tions. Th ese Western, embodied depictions of mental states may be modifying
the phenomenological orientations people engage with in South India.
Embodiment and Phenomenology
Interpretations that seek explicitly to collapse mind/body dualities, or that are
essentially dialectical or montage-like in form, are now privileged. Th e body is no
longer portrayed simply as a template for social organization, nor as a biologic al
black box cut off from “mind,” and nature/culture and mind/body dualities are
self-consciously interrogated (Lock 1993: 136).Th is observation by Margaret Lock in 1993 describes a turn to the body
in the 1980s and 1990s in fi elds ranging from anthropology to comparative