Carlessi, Pedro Crepaldi2024-09-182024-09-182024-12Carlessi PC. Instituting traditional medicine: changes to identity and legitimacy in global health. Soc Theory Health. 2024;22:269-84.http://hdl.handle.net/10400.21/17707This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (CAPES) – Finance Code 001, and supported by FCT/MCTES UIDP/05608/2020, and UIDB/05608/2020.Based on reports from the World Health Organization, this ethnography concerns the concept of tradition/traditional as a quality of contemporary medicine. The discussion focuses on how this term has been mobilized within the context of global health and, not least, on its effects while being instituted as a therapeutic category. From a medical anthropology approach, I track the mobilization of this concept from the 1960s to current reports, through the Organization’s headquarters to its regional branches. I intend to highlight the shifts in its conceptualization, specifically, how the term has reshaped the identity and legitimacy of medicine and medication.engTraditional medicineGlobal healthMedical anthropologyInternational agenciesWorld Health OrganizationFCT_UIDP/05608/2020FCT_UIDB/05608/2020journal article10.1057/s41285-024-00213-6