Beyond paradigm: Making transcultural connections in a scientific translation of acupuncture

This paper examines the ways in which the acupuncture phenomenon is translated into scientific language through the mobilization of functional magnetic resonance imaging. In doing so, it explores how differences between science and traditional medicine are bridged and negotiated through an open-ended tuning process among heterogeneous elements. By showing the constructive interaction between traditional medicine and science, I aim to refute a conception of East Asian medicines as culturally bounded and to provide an interpretation of transculturalism that emphasizes its diverse and hybrid formations. Particularly, in order to explain the scientific translation of acupuncture, I refer to Andrew Pickering's “mangle of practice” as an alternative to Thomas Kuhn's paradigm. Adopting a performative perspective rather than a representational one with regard to science, I read the scientific interpretation of acupuncture as an interactive stabilization between the acupuncture phenomenon, neurological theory, and the material procedure of the MRI machine.