Re-examining the Historical Development and Periodization of Mongolian Traditional Medicine through Foucault’s Theory
- VernacularTitle:Монголын уламжлалт анагаах ухааны түүхэн хөгжил, үечлэлийг Фукогийн онолоор шинжлэх нь
- Author:
Batsaikhan Norov
1
;
Batchimeg Usukhbayar
2
;
Tserendagva Dalkh
1
;
Amgalanbaatar Dorjkhuu
1
Author Information
1. Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
2. University of Oxford, United Kingdom
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
Archaeology;
bio-medicine;
Foucault;
Lama doctor;
Shaman
- From:Mongolian Medical Sciences
2025;214(4):54-61
- CountryMongolia
- Language:Mongolian
-
Abstract:
This article analyses the historical development of Mongolian Traditional Medicine (MTM)
through Michel Foucault’s “archaeology of knowledge” framework. The era of ancient
shamanism constituted a metaphysical epistemic regime in which illness was explained
through supernatural forces. A first epistemic rupture emerged in the thirteenth century:
from this point until the late fourteenth century, within the Mongol Empire there stand up
a multi-centred knowledge space alongside shamanic practices, Tibetan and Chinese
medical traditions, as well as elements of Western medicine coexisted. After the fall of the
Yuan dynasty, this pluralistic configuration weakened, leading to a resurgence of shamanic
discourse that remained dominant until the spread of Tibetan Buddhism. Another rupture
occurred in the late sixteenth century, after which, between the seventeenth and twentieth
centuries, Tibetan medicine became the principal institutionalised discourse in Mongolia.
During this period, a Tibetanised epistemic regime took shape, characterised by Tibetan
terminology, diagnostic methods, pharmacological recipes, and the monopolising role of
monastic physicians. From the mid-nineteenth century onward, the discourse of European
scientific medicine began to layer itself onto this Tibetan framework, marking an important
precursor to the next epistemic rupture in the early twentieth century. Under the communist
regime, particularly between 1937 and 1990, Mongolian traditional medicine was first
suppressed and later reorganised into a government-controlled, “scientifically” systematised
institutional form. This was not the annihilation of discourse but rather a reconfiguration of
MTM within a new power-knowledge configuration. Since 1990, MTM has existed within
a pluralistic, multi-centred discursive environment, encompassing market-based, religious,
traditional, and biomedical frameworks, resulting in a fragmented knowledge system. Thus,
the historical evolution of Mongolian Traditional Medicine is best understood not as a linear
continuum but as a series of layered discourses marked by ruptures, transitions, overlaps,
and revivals. Its history is shaped by successive regimes of truth, each producing distinct
configurations of medical knowledge.
- Full text:2026070408002582326MAUS-2025-214(4)-54-61.pdf
