Local reflexivity about the body politic and especially about the impact of
biomedicine upon ritual healing is imbued with a certain ambivalence. It is here
argued that an understanding of these different discourses that are emerging in
contemporary Garhwal can be achieved by taking into account several interrelated
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dimensions, namely the local body politic (involving deities controlling and
protecting the territory and local bodies), the individual bodily experience, and the
impact of contemporary social change on the status of biomedicine as well as on
local practices and perceptions of the body.