Subject: nomen est omen?

From: MARGOT <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 1995 17:14:11 +0100

Hi everyone,

another request to educate a newcomer: I noticed that people use 'TCM' 
and 'ETH' to mean different things. I am unaware of the difference - 
in the (german-spoken) courses I attended we were introduced to the 
term Traditional Chinese Medicine to mean exactly that, not referring to 
any particular school or tradition, but as a generic term including 
all medical (in the sense of healing) traditions rooting in the Nei Jing.

If there is more subtlety to it than that, I'd much appreciate being 
educated about it. 

Thanks,
		margot

[ ETH is a term used by Paul Iannone, a list member here. He prefers
it to TCM. It is not in wide use; Paul is about the only one I
know who uses it. Most schools and books use TCM (Traditional
Chinese Medicine), Classical Chinese Medicine or Oriental Medicine.
For the purposes of OrMed list materials, I use either TCM or
Oriental Medicine (OrMed). I'll leave it to others to debate the 
usefulness or value of one term or another in other forums.

Norm. (OrMed Moderator) ]

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: 02 Feb 1995 14:40:42 GMT

: Hi everyone,
: 
: another request to educate a newcomer: I noticed that people use 'TCM' 
: and 'ETH' to mean different things. I am unaware of the difference - 
: in the (german-spoken) courses I attended we were introduced to the 
: term Traditional Chinese Medicine to mean exactly that, not referring to 
: any particular school or tradition, but as a generic term including 
: all medical (in the sense of healing) traditions rooting in the Nei Jing.
: 
: If there is more subtlety to it than that, I'd much appreciate being
:  educated about it. 
: 
: Thanks,
:   margot
: 
: [ ETH is a term used by Paul Iannone, a list member here. He prefers
: it to TCM. It is not in wide use; Paul is about the only one I
: know who uses it. Most schools and books use TCM (Traditional
: Chinese Medicine), Classical Chinese Medicine or Oriental Medicine.
: For the purposes of OrMed list materials, I use either TCM or
: Oriental Medicine (OrMed). I'll leave it to others to debate the 
: usefulness or value of one term or another in other forums.
: 
: Norm. (OrMed Moderator) ]

A quick explanation would include the issues that 1) TCM is a poorly formed
isolated term--CTM would be more useful (analogous to other forms of
_location_ Traditional Healing); 2) TCM ignores the fact that China today is
not China of the past--East-Asia is a better location referent; 3) medicine
is a European term that doesn't include all the practices of healing--ETH is
a system of healing including many non-medical practices. 'Oriental,' a prior
term to East-Asian, suffers from the fact that it is commonly used to refer
to both India and Persia, both of which have their own forms of traditional
healing.

[email-masked] (Paul Iannone, P.O.B. 66843, L.A., CA 90066).