Plants, Health and Healing : : On the Interface of Ethnobotany and Medical Anthropology / / ed. by Elisabeth Hsu, Stephen Harris.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Berghahn Books Complete eBook-Package 2000-2013
• MitwirkendeR: Blumenshine, Philip,; Evans, John Grimley,; Freedman, Françoise Barbira,; Geissler, P. Wenzel,; Harris, Stephen,; Hsu, Elisabeth,; Prince, Ruth J.,; Timbul, Verena,; Weckerle, Caroline S.,
• HerausgeberIn: Harris, Stephen,; Hsu, Elisabeth,
• Place / Publishing House: New York; , Oxford : : Berghahn Books, , [2010]; ©2010
• Year of Publication: 2010
• Language: English
• Series: Epistemologies of Healing ; 6
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (328 p.)

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.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- List of Tables -- Introduction. Plants in Medical Practice and Common Sense: On the Interface of Ethnobotany and Medical Anthropol -- HISTORY -- Editorial Introduction -- 1. Non-Native Plants and Their Medicinal Uses -- 2. Qing hao (Herba Artemisiae annuae) in the Chinese Materia Medica -- ANTHROPOLOGY -- Editorial Introduction -- 3. Shamanic Plants and Gender in the Healing Forest -- 4. Persons, Plants and Relations: Treating Childhood Illness in a Western Kenyan Village -- PLANT PORTRAITS -- Editorial Introduction -- 5. East goes West. Ginkgo biloba and Dementia -- 6. Medicinal, Stimulant and Ritual Plant Use: an Ethnobotany of Caffeine-Containing Plants -- Notes on Contributors -- Index