Paper short abstract:

Based on my ethnographic research of Ayurveda in the Czech Republic I intend to interpret how is the safety of Ayurveda constructed in the dialogue of ayurvedic and local biomedically formed understanding of safety and to contribute to the discussion of the safety of traditional medicine use.

Paper long abstract:

Drawing upon results of my diploma thesis and current fieldwork I would like to discuss the issue of safety of Ayurveda as it is formed in the process of its introducing, practising and regulating in the Czech Republic.

Similarly to other European countries the Czech medical safety discourse is significantly shaped by the western scientific paradigm. This is manifested in legislation which defines the safe medical practices as those ones which follows scientifically proved methods and are mainly done by physicians, but also in the local general understanding of safety. At the same time the biomedical hegemony of safe medical practices is questioned by the diminishing trust in the biomedicine especially with regard to the limited efficiency of treatment of civilization diseases and to the emerging fear of possible dangerous use of chemical medicines. In this environment traditional medicine enjoys high popularity.

Partly as a consequence of limited import of traditional medicines to the Czech Republic till early nineties there are no practitioner associations or legislation directly regulating ayurvedic practice, only the legislation regulating ayurvedic medicines. This is connected with the absence of standardization of Ayurveda in this country and leads to constant negotiations of not just constitutive content, form and legal possibilities of ayurvedic practice but also of their safety. Therefore a variety of self-regulation practices emerges.

The aim is to examine practices through which is the safety of Ayurveda constructed in local environment and contribute to the discussion of safety of traditional medicines use in Euro-American regions.