Folk doctor and NCDs treatment multiple realities and ontological politic between biomedicine and folk medicine

Abstract

    The article examines the knowledge and practices of the folk doctor in Songkhla who mainly cure and heal patients suffered from Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) such as chronic kidney disease, diabetes, and hypertension. By intensively following and observing the renowned folk doctor in his daily activities, the author argues that the knowledge and practices of folk doctor are flexible. The folk doctor attempts to bridge the gap between traditional and modern medicine by translation meanwhile things such as herbal medicine and other medical instruments, as an actor, simultaneously enact to give rise to the multiple realities and the ontological politic of the disease. Finally, the life of a folk doctor is not static, and the existence of folk medicine is not simply marginalized, rather, it exists in an inherent and complex connection with biomedicine and modern society.