Plants, Health and Healing

On the Interface of Ethnobotany and Medical Anthropology
1. Auflage 2010
ISBN: 978-1-84545-060-1
Verlag: Berghahn Books

Buch, Englisch, Band 6, 328 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 630 g

Reihe: Epistemologies of Healing

Plants have cultural histories, as their applications change over time and with place. Some plant species have affected human cultures in profound ways, such as the stimulants tea and coffee from the Old World, or coca and quinine from South America. Even though medicinal plants have always attracted considerable attention, there is surprisingly little research on the interface of ethnobotany and medical anthropology. This volume, which brings together (ethno-)botanists, medical anthropologists and a clinician, makes an important contribution towards filling this gap. It emphasises that plant knowledge arises situationally as an intrinsic part of social relationships, that herbs need to be enticed if not seduced by the healers who work with them, that herbal remedies are cultural artefacts, and that bioprospecting and medicinal plant discovery can be viewed as the epitome of a long history of borrowing, stealing and exchanging plants.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hsu, Elisabeth

Harris, Stephen

Fachgebiete

• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Botanik
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften, Biologie: Sachbuch, Naturführer
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations

List of Tables

List of Contributors

Introduction

Elisabeth Hsu

History

Editorial introduction

Stephen Harris

Chapter 1. Non-native plants and their medicinal uses

Stephen Harris

Chapter 2. Qinghao. (Herba Artemisiae annuae) in the Chinese materia medica

Elisabeth Hsu (in consultation with Frederic Obringer)

Anthropology

Editorial introduction

Stephen Harris

Chapter 3. Shamanic plants and gender in the Peruvian Upper Amazon

Francoise Barbira Freedman

Chapter 4. Persons, plants and relations: treating childhood illness in a western Kenyan village

P. Wenzel Geissler and Ruth J. Prince

Plant Portraits

Editorial introduction

Stephen Harris

Chapter 5. East goes West. Ginkgo biloba and dementia

Sir John Grimley Evans

Chapter 6. Medicinal, stimulant and ritual plant use: an ethnobotany of caffeine-containing plants

Caroline S. Weckerle, Verena Timbul and Philip Blumenshine

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Hsu, Elisabeth
Elisabeth Hsu is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Oxford, where she has convened its master’s courses in medical anthropology since 2001. Based on her earlier studies in biology (botany), linguistics and sinology, she has published widely on the history and anthropology of Chinese medicine.

Harris, Stephen
Stephen Harris was awarded a Ph.D. in plant systematics from the University of St. Andrews in 1990. He has been the Druce Curator of Oxford University Herbaria since 1995 and has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers on genetics and systematics associated with the evolutionary consequences of plant-human interactions.

Elisabeth Hsu is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Oxford, where she has convened its master’s courses in medical anthropology since 2001. Based on her earlier studies in biology (botany), linguistics and sinology, she has published widely on the history and anthropology of Chinese medicine.