Vol. 10 No. 1 (2025): Salud y religión: articulaciones, tensiones y desafíos
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An Ethos of Effort and Humility: Symbolic Configurations within the Context of Hospital Work by Reiki Practitioners (City of Buenos Aires)

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  • Mariana Bordes,
  • María Mercedes Saizar
Mariana Bordes
Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas- Escuela Interdisciplinaria de Altos Estudios Sociales- Universidad Nacional de San Martín
María Mercedes Saizar
Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29112/ruae.v10i1.2432

Published 2025-05-29

Keywords

  • Medicinas alternativas,
  • Hospitales,
  • Reiki,
  • Procesos de Reapropiación
  • Alternative medicine,
  • Hospitals,
  • Reiki,
  • Reappropriation processes
  • Medicinas alternativas,
  • Hospitais,
  • Reiki,
  • Processos de reapropriação

How to Cite

Bordes, M., & Saizar, M. M. (2025). An Ethos of Effort and Humility: Symbolic Configurations within the Context of Hospital Work by Reiki Practitioners (City of Buenos Aires). Uruguayan Review of Anthropology and Ethnography On Line: ISSN 2393-6886, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.29112/ruae.v10i1.2432

Copyright (c) 2025 Maria Mercedes, Mariana Bordes

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

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Abstract

The article explores an aspect of the phenomenon related to the growing presence of "alternative," "alternative and complementary," or non-conventional medicines within official health care settings (City of Buenos Aires): specifically, the processes of adaptation, reappropriation, and "adjustment" that these non-biomedical practices undergo in order to remain in these spaces. Based on interpretative and qualitative research and focusing on the perspective of a group of practitioners of a particular Eastern discipline—Reiki—this work examines certain convergences and continuities between the symbolic repertoire of this Eastern practice and the way it is implemented, alongside the institutional and professional constraints, limits, and requirements that hospital work entails. This results in an interpretation of the hospital as an enabling space, where the development and reinforcement of skills and a new conception of the practice become possible. The article draws on interpretative and qualitative research, utilizing semi-structured interviews and participant/non-participant observations.

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