Healing Roots : : Anthropology in Life and Medicine / / Julie Laplante.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Berghahn Books Complete eBook-Package 2014-2015
• VerfasserIn: Laplante, Julie,
• Place / Publishing House: New York ;, Oxford : : Berghahn Books, , [2015]; ©2015
• Year of Publication: 2015
• Language: English
• Series: Epistemologies of Healing ; 15
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (302 p.)

Umhlonyane, also known as Artemisia afra, is one of the oldest and best-documented indigenous medicines in South Africa. This bush, which grows wild throughout the sub-Saharan region, smells and tastes like “medicine,” thus easily making its way into people’s lives and becoming the choice of everyday healing for Xhosa healer-diviners and Rastafarian herbalists. This “natural” remedy has recently sparked curiosity as scientists search for new molecules against a tuberculosis pandemic while hoping to recognize indigenous medicine. Laplante follows umhlonyane on its trails and trials of becoming a biopharmaceutical — from the “open air” to controlled environments — learning from the plant and from the people who use it with hopes in healing.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- Introduction Tracing the Preclinical Trial of an Indigenous Plant -- Chapter 1 Knowing Umhlonyane/ Artemisia afra -- Chapter 2 Engaging in Medicine -- Chapter 3 Tracing Medicine Wayfaring -- Chapter 4 Imagining Indigeneity -- Chapter 5 Healing the Nation -- Chapter 6 Dreams, Ancestors and Sound Healing -- Chapter 7 Weaving Molecules with Life -- Conclusion Imagining the Clinical Trial -- References -- Index