Acupuncture in Western Europe Gunnar Stollberg1

While the term ‘hybridisation ’ is particularly well suited to describe innovations consisting of (literally) existing ingredients, the term is problematic in that it implies the existence of non-hybridised culture. However, societies without processes of transfer, exchange and transformation are rare. When Elwert (1996) described culture as the social organisation of syncretism, he strengthened the idea of culture as open and dynamic structures instead of static and isolated formations. Nederveen Pieterse (1994: 180) talked of the ‘hybridisation of hybrid cultures’. If every culture is hybridised, the term loses its significance. It may only still be relevant for challenging essentialist discourses (Rosaldo 1995). Is it obsolete for other research topics? I will first look for an original version of Chinese medicine in China (I). Having outlined various forms of Chinese medicine in the West (II), and after a short history of acupuncture in Europe (III), I will describe hybridised forms of Chinese medicine in Germany (IV), and in Britain (V). Then I will look for hybridisation in the acupuncture education (VI) and present a British medical conception of minimal acupuncture (VII). Finally I will outline recent results of German acupuncture RCTs and their potential consequences (VIII). I. Is there an original Chinese medicine in China