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Background: The use of indigenous practices has increased remarkably throughout the world. Subsequently, society uses this practice for the treatment of various health problems, including infertility. This research focussed on the role of indigenous practitioners (IPs) using a holistic approach to explore the causes of infertility in women. Aim: This study aimed to explore and describe the views of IPs on the causes of female infertility in Ngaka Modiri Molema health district. Setting: The study was conducted in Ngaka Modiri Molema, North West Province, one of the most rural provinces in South Africa. Methods: The study followed a qualitative explorative design. A purposive sampling technique identified five IPs who were experts in managing infertility. Individual semistructured interviews were conducted, and data analysis used Creswell’s method of qualitative data analysis. Results: Findings revealed that IPs offered a wide range of services in the treatment and management of infertility among rural women. Hence, the following themes emerged, namely, history taking regarding infertility, treatment of infertility and holistic care on infertility. Conclusion: The IPs are important providers of healthcare in the management of infertility in indigenous communities. The findings revealed that there are various causes of female infertility according to the indigenous healthcare system. Contribution: In contribution, the study described the unique practices found in the community as executed by the IPs. This care focusses on holistic care, including treatment and continuous care for the healthcare user and the family. Noteworthy to mention, this holistic care extends to subsequent pregnancies. However, there is a need for further research to valorise the indigenous knowledge unearthed in this study.&nbsp

Harmful usage of tobacco is a global public health problem associated with adverse health effects and addiction. Yet, in the Peruvian Amazon, the native region of Nicotiana rustica L., this plant is used in remarkably different manners: it is considered a potent medicinal plant, applied in liquid form for oral ingestion to treat mental health problems, a common and ancient healing practice in this region. Using a transdisciplinary field research approach with mixed ethnopsychological methods, this work aimed to report for the first time a case study in this context. The intervention took place in the Peruvian Amazon (Loreto) and involved ritual tobacco ingestion in a weeklong retreat-like frame, administered by a specialized traditional Amazonian healer. The patient was a 37-year-old woman with diagnosed mood, anxiety, and attention deficit disorders, as well as a chronic somatic condition. We applied qualitative experience-sampling during and quantitative symptom assessments pre- and post-treatment. Our findings offer a detailed description of the experiential therapeutic process during the treatment week and suggest clinically relevant improvements in patient well-being. This work is significant in view of the globally prevalent harmful uses of tobacco and the current scientific trend of revisiting herbal psychoactives (e.g., cannabis, psilocybin) for their therapeutic potentials.

This dissertation is situated at the intersection of the anthropology of ethics and politics in the context of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). I ground my analysis in a long-standing ethical-political tradition, dating from the Warring States Period (475-221 BCE), which sees societal political progress as predicated on prior individual self-transformation. My overarching argument is that in contemporary China, discourses and practices of self-improvement have mediated, and continue to mediate, the relations between the political subject and the state. This dynamic is manifested in party-state-led projects of citizenry reform as well as in grassroots social initiatives centred on xiuxing – a polyvalent term denoting processes of self-amelioration, whose significance must be unpacked through a situated ethnographic exploration. To this end, I examine the social life that unfolds via the ‘Wu-Wei School’, a private organisation that provides educative xiuxing retreats. The school claims to use an areligious rendering of Daoist ascetic techniques to help citizens live healthier, more fulfilling lives, thereby contributing to the national rejuvenation project inaugurated by the Xi government (since 2012). My primary interlocutors are organisers and participants of the school, the majority of whom are urban professional householders belonging to relatively privileged social groups. They embark on xiuxing projects via grassroots organisations such as this school to address tangible problems in their lives, especially in areas of health, child rearing, and relationships. Notably, many hold that by undertaking xiuxing, they are reshaping not only themselves, but also their families and their situated socio-natural environment. I trace how my interlocutors engage with esoteric forms of self-transformation knowledge-practice, adopt forms of Daoist autogenetic healing, and intersect with other alternative education schemas such as Steiner Education. While ostensibly retreating into their bodies and interiorities, I argue that these Chinese citizens articulate a historically-sedimented mode of influence which connects human interiorities and sociohistorical transformations through the avenue of reflexive self-improvement. I further demonstrate how this mode of influence is integral to diverse components of the PRC political-cum-moral project, delineating the surprising ways in which my interlocutors operating ‘outside the system’ (ti zhi wai) coalesce with injunctions and techniques issued from ‘within the system’ (ti zhi nei). Through a historically-situated consideration of grassroots initiatives centred on xiuxing in the PRC, this dissertation contributes to anthropological studies of ethics, personhood, education, health, and governance. My theoretical contributions are fourfold: Firstly, I deploy indigenous Chinese concepts as analytical tools on a par with social theories constructed in Euro-American academia, enriching the conceptual repertoire of anthropological analysis. Secondly, I explore new ways of engaging with the ‘affective’ domain of social life by analysing how actors deploy indigenous theories of influence and potentiality in their situated articulations of socio-political belonging. Thirdly, I propose a theory of citizen-state interrelation in the PRC: ‘coopetition’, a framework borrowed from management studies that underscores practical interdependence and creative coalescence, eschewing notions of a reified structural divide. Finally, I develop an analytic of ‘recreational asceticism’ to elucidate the ethical life found at the Wu-Wei School, which differs significantly from what has been described as ‘self-cultivation’ in the anthropology of ethics., Gates Cambridge Scholarship, Cambridge University Fieldwork Fund

Non-alcohol fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the most common chronic liver problems across the world accounting 25% of the global population. The major groups that are mostly affected are young children and obese population. It is identified to be corelated with metabolic syndrome such as mellitus diabetes, hypertension, insulin resistance. Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is the robust form of NAFLD which has led to necro-inflammation and liver fibrosis. The standard and well-known diagnostic method till now is ‘liver biopsy’ but it impedes the examining of the tissue because of its invasive nature. Other diagnostic study usually involved imaging tools MRI or ultrasonography for discriminating simple steatosis with prognostic NASH also have certain limitations. Due to the ever-rising rate of NAFLD, there is an imperative need of developing non-invasive biomarkers for better monitoring and prophecy of the disease. There is also a need for the better treatment for curing NAFLD. In the knowledge of people, it has been observed that medicinal plants have known to possess professional therapeutic properties Swertia chiraiyta, a customary indigenous folk plant primordial to the upper regions of temperate Himalayas, Nepal and Bhutan is used in various ailments of liver disorders, ulcers, fever, diabetes, skin, and various other diseases. The current review focuses on epidemiologic, pathogenetic aspects and both the current and prospective biomarkers involved in NAFLD assessment that has the potential to leverage better understanding of solving the problem. Moreover, it characterizes the current treatment of NAFLD while discussing the other newer dimension of formulation for future prospects.

Indigenous medicine is a unique entity of a medical system which has been proven as an effective and is in practice from ancient times in Sri Lanka. In this system, use of medicinal plants in different ailments are driven by popular knowledge through traditional healers. However, these claimed activities are neither scientifically proven nor refuted. This evidence-based study is focused on the scientific validation of commonly used herbs included in external applications to treat wounds in indigenous medicine. The data were gathered referring ancientOlaleaf manuscripts based on different herbal applications used for the treatment of wounds and analysed to reveal the plants which were mostly used in those different applications. The selected plant species were evaluated in terms of the current state -of-the-art for their pharmacology and effectiveness in wound healing. Many external applications are used in treating wounds in different dosage forms such as oils, fresh juices,mellum,bolus fermentation, powders and fumigation.Pongamia pinnataandVernonia zeylanicawere found in highest number of remedies followed by Curcumalonga,Jasminum sambac,Azadirachta indica,Glycyrrhiza glabraandDesmodium triflorum.Current evidences suggest that the majority of the plants used were studied for their wound healing potential byin vivostudies as the current maximum level of scientific evidences available.Vernonia zeylanicais the least studied plant in the literature. Perhaps the endemicity of this plant to Sri Lanka could be the major reason for the scarcity of literature. This is the first study systemically assessing of evidences from modern literature to support Olaleaf evidences on wound healing activity mentioned in traditional indigenous medical system of Sri Lanka.

Sensing the environment, sustaining physicochemical and thermal homeostasis, serving as a source of vital nutrients, providing passive and active protection, and reacting to trauma and injury are all important functions of our skin (Xu et al. 2015). Protecting the skin from pain, as well as repairing and replacing essential skin functions when they are damaged or lost requires rigorous and reliable mechanisms. For centuries, humans have been treating their wounds (Talbott 1962). Traditional wound care is constrained by what is readily available or can be obtained locally, such as water, soil, and plant & animal products, and is often supplemented with ceremony and ritual as the last option.

Les populations autochtones au Canada, comme partout dans le monde, sont moins en santé que leur contrepartie non autochtone. La médecine traditionnelle, notamment pour les populations autochtones, offre une avenue intéressante à une amélioration de leur santé et elle peut être mise en place dans les programmes de santé publique. Par la notion de culture inscrite dans la MT, celle-ci permet d’offrir des soins culturellement adaptés. Bien que de nombreux avantages découlent de la combinaison des médecines, la combinaison dans un contexte de soins primaires présente des défis. À ce jour, il semble que les organisations de santé aient des difficultés à bien arrimer ces deux approches de soins. L’objectif général de cette étude consiste à comprendre et analyser la dynamique d’interactions ayant cours entre les acteurs qui participent à la conception, au développement et à la planification d’une offre de soins et services qui permette une combinaison des MT et la MA. Cette recherche qualitative avec cas multiples est menée dans deux communautés autochtones du Québec, de nations ilnue et crie, ayant des caractéristiques variées. Les données proviennent d’entrevues individuelles et d’ateliers de transfert de connaissances réalisés auprès des aînés et guérisseurs, des patients, des professionnels et des administrateurs de la santé, ainsi que de documents écrits et d’observations sur le terrain. Le cadre conceptuel s’appuie sur l’analyse stratégique de Crozier et Friedberg (1977) et sur le système des professions d’Abbott (1988). Cette recherche met en évidence les multiples dimensions ayant un impact sur une offre de soins combinés. Ces dernières peuvent entre autres être liées à la culture comme les modes de transmission du savoir, et aux contextes organisationnel, administratif, réglementaire et même géographique. De plus, la compréhension des enjeux et des stratégies des parties prenantes permet de mieux comprendre l’organisation de chacun des deux mondes. Nos résultats montrent que, dans les deux cas à l’étude, la combinaison des deux médecines est coordonnée par le patient (modèle du patient coordonnateur). Mais dans un des cas, le patient est davantage soutenu dans sa trajectoire de soins. Une meilleure compréhension des dynamiques d’interaction entre les parties prenantes permet d’avoir un impact sur une offre des soins mixtes améliorant la santé des autochtones. Cette étude soutient le développement d’un modèle de soins qui met de l’avant les médecines traditionnelles et suscite une réflexion sur les facteurs qui influencent la mise en œuvre d’une combinaison des médecines., Indigenous peoples in Canada and around the world are less healthy than their non-Indigenous counterparts. Traditional medicine, especially for Indigenous populations, offers an interesting avenue for improving their health and it can be implemented in public health programs. Through the notion of culture enshrined in traditional medicine, the latter can provide culturally appropriate care. Although many advantages are derived from such mixed care models, this combination has significant challenges. To date, it seems that health organizations have difficulty to properly engage these two-health approaches. The consideration of Indigenous knowledge and healing practices has begun, but it remains fragmented with discontinuous health services offered to the population. The general objective of this research is to understand and analyze the dynamics of interaction going among actors who involved in the implementation of a mixed care model of delivery of services that combines traditional and allopathic medicines. This multiple case qualitative research is conducted at two Indigenous communities in Quebec, Ilnu and Cree nations, with various characteristics. The data comes from individual interviews and knowledge transfer workshops with elders and healers, patients, health professionals and health administrators, as well as written documents and participant observations. The conceptual framework builds on the strategic analysis of Crozier and Friedberg (1977) and Abbott’s system of professions (1988). This research highlights the multiple dimensions that have an impact on a mixed care offer. These can, among other things, be related to culture such as the modes of transmission of knowledge, and to organizational, administrative, regulatory and even geographic contexts. In addition, understanding the challenges and strategies of the actors makes it possible to better understand both worlds. Our results show that, in the two cases under study, the combination of the two medicines is coordinated by the patient (patient coordinator model). But in one of the cases, the patient is more supported in his care trajectory. A better understanding of the dynamics of interaction between stakeholders makes it possible to have an impact on the delivery of mixed care improving the health of Indigenous people. This study has the potential to impact on the delivery of combined health care services, thereby improving prevention and health promotion for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. It supports the development of an alternative model of care, putting forward Indigenous traditional medicine. It encourages the reflection on the different factors involved in combining medicines.

De la medicina de los pueblos iletrados que ocupaban el territorio del actual Uruguay, se tiene conocimiento a través de crónicas de los conquistadores españoles y algunos naturalistas de otras nacionalidades. La medicina de esas etnias se basaba en atribución de las dolencias a causas sobrenaturales y la terapéutica era principalmente herbolaria. Cuando se produjo la conquista, ocurrió una influencia recíproca entre la terapéutica indígena, que debió ser adoptada por los españoles a falta de otros recursos, y una paulatina europeización de los criterios etiológicos y terapéuticos. Sin embargo, durante mucho tiempo, los criterios indígenas se mantuvieron. Recién a fines del siglo XIX la medicina nacional se occidentalizó por completo, aunque en medios rurales persisten algunas costumbres de raíz indígena. Knowledge about the kind of medicine practiced by the illiterate ethnic groups dwelling in the extension of what I now Uruguay, comes from chronicles written by the Spanish conquerors and some naturalists of other nations. Ethnic medical notions attributed the origin of diseases to supernatural powers, and therapeutic resources were mainly herbal. When Spanish conquerors occupied the territory, they adopted many of the indigenous therapeutic resources for lack of other means, but eventually a slow Europeanization started developing, though native criteria remained for a long while. Lastly, during the late nineteenth century, Uruguayan medicine became westernized, though some native customs rooted in indigenous traditions are still observed in rural areas.

Ethnopharmacological relevance Traditional pharmacopeias have been developed by multiple cultures and evaluated for efficacy and safety through both historical/empirical iteration and more recently through controlled studies using Western scientific paradigms and an increasing emphasis on data science methodologies for network pharmacology. Traditional medicines represent likely sources of relatively inexpensive drugs for symptomatic management as well as potential libraries of new therapeutic approaches. Leveraging this potential requires hard evidence for efficacy that separates science from pseudoscience. Materials and methods We performed a review of non-Western medical systems and developed case studies that illustrate the epistemological and practical translative barriers that hamper their transition to integration with Western approaches. We developed a new data analytics approach, in silico convergence analysis, to deconvolve modes of action, and potentially predict desirable components of TM-derived formulations based on computational consensus analysis across cultures and medical systems. Results Abstraction, simplification and altered dose and delivery modalities were identified as factors that influence actual and perceived efficacy once a medicine is moved from a non-Western to Western setting. Case studies on these factors highlighted issues with translation between non-Western and Western epistemologies, including those where epistemological and medicinal systems drive markets that can be epicenters for zoonoses such as the novel Coronavirus. The proposed novel data science approach demonstrated the ability to identify and predict desirable medicinal components for a test indication, pain. Conclusions Relegation of traditional therapies to the relatively unregulated nutraceutical industry may lead healthcare providers and patients to underestimate the therapeutic potential of these medicines. We suggest three areas of emphasis for this field: First, vertical integration and embedding of traditional medicines into healthcare systems would subject them to appropriate regulation and evidence-based practice, as viable integrative implementation mode. Second, we offer a new Bradford-Hill-like framework for setting research priorities and evaluating efficacy, with the goal of rescuing potentially valuable therapies from the nutraceutical market and discrediting those that are pseudoscience. Third, data analytics pipelines offer new capacity to generate new types of TMS-inspired medicines that are rationally-designed based on integrated knowledge across cultures, and also provide an evaluative framework against which to test claims of fidelity and efficacy to TMS made for nutraceuticals., Graphical abstract Schematic grouping of traditional medicine approaches. Schematic representation of out-grouping of formalized phytomedicines and phytopharmacopeias from other traditional medicine approaches and pseudoscientific approaches. The potential of each group of approaches to be evaluated and distributed across axes of the potential or actual scientific proof of efficacy, plausibility of mechanism of action, and the potential for placebo effect (likely related to perceived complexity).Image 1

The secretions of the Giant Monkey Frog Phyllomedusa bicolor are used by populations in the Amazon regions (mainly the indigenous Katukinas and Kaxinawás). The so-called “toad vaccine” or “kambô” is applied as a medication for infections and to prevent diseases, and also as physical and mental invigorator, and analgesic. Since the 1980s, researchers and companies have been interested in the composition of these secretions. Phyllomedusin, phyllokinin, caerulein and sauvagine are the polypeptides in these secretions that can cause intense effects on smooth muscles, vessels provoking, nausea and vomiting, arterial hypotension, flushing, palpitations, nausea, vomiting, bile secretion and angioedema. These actions are similar to bradykinin. However, the feeling of well-being and improvement of motor skills described by the users seems to be associated with dermorphine, caerulein or deltorphin – peptides with analgesic properties – and their affinity for the opiate receptor systems. Caerulein is a peptide that increases digestive secretions. Phyllomedusin and Phyllokinin lead to blood pressure and digestive effects. Sauvagine release corticotropin and mimics the physiological reactions of exposure to stress. Deltorphins and dermorphins have high affinity for the opiate receptor system and can lead to analgesia. The fame acquired by the therapy motivated the use by individuals from urban areas worldwide, without safety considerations. While in indigenous communities, there is an entire cultural tradition that provides relative safety to the application, however, the extension of use to individuals from urban areas worldwide is a problem, with reports of severe adverse effects and deaths. Undoubtedly, the skin secretions of the Phyllomedusa genus contain substances of intense pharmacological action and that can lead to research for therapeutic uses, but control over their application in rituals outside the forest is needed due the risks presented.

Resumen El centro de interés de este artículo es la atención médica hospitalaria a los pueblos indígenas en la Colonia y los fundamentos, prácticas, relaciones interétnicas (entendiendo por etnia igualmente un pueblo mesoamericano y cualquier pueblo ajeno a Mesoamérica). Se aludirá a algunas características de la medicina y práctica médica indígena a fin de destacar las similitudes y diferencias y las actitudes de las etnias europeas hacia tales contrastes. El propósito de ejemplificar las prácticas médicas de una y otra etnia y contrastar sus respuestas es encontrar en la analogía una razón suficiente para cuestionar el posicionamiento de una práctica sobre la otra. Plantear los rasgos favorables o desfavorables para la atención médica a los pueblos indígenas en la Colonia para finalmente ubicar la presencia actual de dichos rasgos en algún caso. Resumo O centro de interesse desse artigo é a assistência médica hospitalar aos povos indígenas da colônia e os fundamentos, práticas, relações interétnicas (etnia também significa um povo mesoamericano e qualquer pessoa fora da Mesoamérica). Algumas características da medicina indígena e da prática médica também serão mencionadas, a fim de destacar as semelhanças e diferenças e atitudes dos grupos étnicos europeus em relação a esses contrastes. O objetivo de exemplificar as práticas médicas de ambos os grupos étnicos e contrastar suas respostas é encontrar na analogia uma razão suficiente para questionar o posicionamento de uma prática sobre a outra. Levantar as características do colonialismo favorável na assistência médica aos povos indígenas da Colônia e o desfavorável para garantir a saúde. Abstract The focus of this paper is hospital medical care for indigenous peoples in the colony during the Spanish conquest and their main bases, practices and inter-ethnic relations (we understand ethnicity as also including Mesoamerican people and any other people outside Mesoamerica). Some characteristics of indigenous medicine and medical practice will also be discussed in order to highlight the similarities, differences, and attitudes of European ethnic groups towards such contrasts. The purpose of exemplifying the medical practices of both ethnic groups, and contrasting their responses, is to find in the analogy a sufficient reason to question the positioning of one practice over the other, as well as to highlight positive and negative aspects of the medical care to indigenous peoples during the colonial period in order to identify if any of these features are still prevalent in any cases.

Background: Most countries pose their own indigenous knowledge systems. Native knowledge on indigenous medicine is one of the knowledge systems widely used in many countries in Asia and Africa. In some countries, 80% of the population depend on indigenous medicine for primary health care. Sri Lanka is an island enriched with a wellestablished indigenous medical system.Materials and Methods: The objectives of the study were to identify characteristics, usage patterns, and perceptions of communities concerning indigenous medicine. Beneficiaries of indigenous medicine were selected through purposive sampling for this study. The data were collected through a documentary survey and interviews.Results: The study identified that the indigenous medical system of the country is called ‘DeshiyaChikitsa,’ ‘Sinhala Vedakama,’ or ‘Hela Vedakama,’ which encompass ritual healing practices, astrology, religious observances, and spiritual powers. Different approaches of people including the use of domestic medicine, obtaining the assistance of astrology, and rituals were identified. Regardless of age, level of education, or employment, communities trust indigenous medicine as a primary or a secondary option on the health care system of the country. The survey identified the growing demand for the indigenous medicine.Conclusion: Around 60 to 70% of the rural population which is comprises 77.3% of total population relies on indigenous medicine. Domestic medicine, astrology and rituals associated with indigenous medicine plays a vital role in people’s health care process. Experts in indigenous medicine are scattered in the country.Keywords: Indigenous Knowledge; Indigenous Medicine; Medical pluralism; Rituals; Sri Lanka Abbreviations: LKR - Sri Lankan Rupee

Traditional systems of medicines, including herbal medicines, have been used for many centuries for health care by people in South East Asia as well as in other parts of the world. Traditional medicine or Ayurveda medicine continues to be a valuable source of remedies that have been used by millions of people around the world to secure their health. Sri Lankan Ayurveda has long history and is a popular medical system in Sri Lanka. Our present generation lacks the knowledge in medicinal plants based herbal drugs as well as indigenous medicine or Ayurveda natural home remedy medicine like previous generation. Our main motivation is to save this valuable indigenous medicine system we develop for the next generation. The main features of the system are search facility, plant dictionary, video gallery including 3D animation, virtual tour and a report generator. The system CeylonHerb will bring indigenous medicine system to digital world as a multimedia based multilingual application.

Background Traditional and complementary medicines (T&CM) are any form of medicine, practice, treatment, product, technology, knowledge system or ceremony outside of conventional medical practice that aims to prevent and/or treat illness and/or promote well-being. Alongside conventional cancer treatments, T&CM usage is increasing; with 19% of indigenous Australians with cancer reporting using T&CM. There is limited evidence surrounding T&CM use and disclosure by indigenous patients. Our aim was to explore healthcare providers’ views about usage, disclosure/non-disclosure of T&CM by Indigenous cancer patients. Methods Semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 18 healthcare providers, including three indigenous providers, at a large urban hospital providing care to Indigenous cancer patients were conducted to explore providers’ experiences and attitudes towards T&CM use by Indigenous cancer patients. An interpretive phenomenological approach was used to thematically analyse the data. Results Analysis revealed six themes: concern about risk; no ‘real’ benefits; perception of T&CM and conventional medicine as antithetical; barriers to disclosure; ‘patients’ choice’ a double-edged sword; and providers’ lack of knowledge about T&CM. Healthcare providers perceived discord between T&CM and conventional medicine. Most lacked knowledge of T&CM, and had concerns around negative-interactions with conventional treatments. They considered T&CM outside their role, citing this as reasoning for their lack of knowledge. Indigenous healthcare providers had greater understanding and openness towards T&CM. Conclusions Given the potential usage of T&CM by Indigenous cancer patients, providers need a more comprehensive understanding of T&CM in order to inform discussion and facilitate effective disclosure on this topic. If indigenous Australians with cancer feel that cancer care providers are unreceptive to discussing T&CM, patient care risks being compromised; particularly given the potential for negative interactions between T&CM and conventional cancer treatments. Fostering health care interactions where indigenous patients feel comfortable to discuss T&CM usage should be a priority for all cancer care services.

A defining characteristic of an indigenous group is that it has preserved its unique traditional ways of living, belief system or pertinent rituals amidst the presence of modernity. One of the indigenous group residing in the Philippines are the Aeta people, found scattered in the archipelago. One of the unique cultural health beliefs of this indigenous group revolves around the spirit called "anito" and the ritual for appeasing this spirit termed as "pag-aanito." This paper explores the contemporary understanding of a select group of Aeta from Pampanga, Philippines on these unique cultural health beliefs and how their understanding and appreciation of their traditional customs affects their perception of the world, themselves, and their health.

We carried out a survey with the objectives of identifying the plants for medicinal use, create a socioeconomic profile, and characterize the access to public health services in 8 villages in the municipalities of Intibucá, Yamaranguila, and San Francisco de Opalaca, department of Intibucá, Honduras. A total of 76 persons were surveyed in several visits during the year 2014. The study was exploratory with descriptive scope, non-probabilistic sampling, subjected to the criterion of family belonging to the ethnic group. We identified 95 plants with common names referenced by their traditional and empirical use. The five plants most frequently used were: epazote, rue, chamomile, eucalyptus and sweetgum, consistent with findings from previous studies. However, there are seven plants that we have not identify yet: bambita, chorrito de humo, flor de cute, hierba de esencio, oreja de burro, doctorcito and pascualillo. For the Lenca people medicinal plants are the first choice of medical care in the face of extreme poverty and isolation. Se realiza una encuesta con los objetivos de identificar las plantas de uso medicinal, con el fin de efectuar un perfil socioeconómico y caracterizar el acceso a servicios de salud pública en ocho aldeas de los municipios de Intibucá, Yamaranguila y San Francisco de Opalaca, departamento de Intibucá, Honduras. Se encuestaron 76 personas en varias visitas realizadas durante el año 2014. El estudio fue exploratorio de alcance descriptivo, de muestreo no probabilístico, sujeto al criterio de pertenencia familiar al grupo étnico. Se identificaron 95 plantas con nombres comunes y que se referencian por su uso tradicional y empírico. Las cinco plantas de uso más frecuente fueron elapazote, la ruda, la manzanilla, el eucalipto y el liquidámbar, consistente con hallazgos de estudios anteriores. Sin embargo, hay siete plantas que aún no hemos identificado: la bambita, chorrito de humo, flor de cute, hierba de esencio, oreja de burro, doctorcito y el pascualillo. Las plantas medicinales son para el pueblo Lenca la primera opción de atención médica ante la pobreza extrema y el aislamiento.

Se hace un análisis del efecto del colonialismo y su violencia cultural sobre los grupos étnicos indígenas y el papel del proceso de reetnización en la redefinición de sus elementos culturales, su salud y las prácticas culturales que les caracterizan actualmente; se ilustró con el ejemplo de la comunidad reetnizada indígena muisca de Cota. In this paper, an analysis on the effect of colonialism and its cultural violence on the ethnic native groups is done taking into account the role of the re-indigenization process in the redefinition of their cultural elements, their health and the cultural practices that currently distinguish them. The re-indigenization of the Cota Muisca native community was set as an example.

ResumenEl artículo describe y analiza sucintamente cuatro de las enfermedades infantiles más frecuentes entre los indígenas nahuas de la sierra de Texcoco (México), enmarcándolas en el cuadro general de las patologías —“físicas” o “materiales” y “espirituales”— características de la zona. Se trata de enfermedades genuinamente “culturales” que sólo pueden ser tratadas por parientes experimentados o especialistas rituales que conozcan la concepción nahua de la persona. El artículo desglosa sus características básicas, etiología, síntomas y terapéuticas mostrando cómo son percibidas por los nahuas a partir de la información recabada durante una investigación etnográfica realizada en la región. A su vez, el artículo reflexiona sobre las complej as relaciones entre el sistema médico occidental y el sistema médico nahua que conviven en la sierra y destaca la existencia de un ámbito terapéutico intermedio, distintivo y camuflado: la medicina familiar o doméstica que brinda respuesta a los males infantiles.SummaryThe paper describes and analyzes concisely four of the most frequent infant illnesses among the Nahuas in the Sierra de Texcoco (México), placing them in the general frame of the characteristic pathologies —“physical or material”, and “spiritual”— characteristic of the región. These are genuine “cultural” diseases that can only be treated by experienced relatives or ritual specialists. In the article the basic characteristics are analyzed in detail by etiology, course and respective therapeutic methods, showing how the illnesses are perceived by the Nahuas through the information collected during the ethnographic research carried out in the región. At the same time, the article reflects about the complex relationship between the Western and the Nahua medical systems that coexist in the Sierra and points out the existence of an intermedíate field of therapy, distinctive and camouflaged, that offers answers to the childhood diseases: the family medicine or domestic medicine.

Indigenous or traditional medicine has, since the 1970s, been widely regarded as a resource likely to contribute to strengthening the health care systems in low income countries. This paper examines the state of traditional medicine using evidence from three case studies in Central Kenya. While the cases are too few to represent the broad diversity of cultures and related healing systems in the Sub-Sahara African Region, the way they seem to refute the main assumptions in the integration discourse is important, also because studies from other countries in the region report perspectives, similar to the case studies in Kenya. It is often argued that people continue to use traditional medicine because it is affordable, available, and culturally familiar. Its integration into the health care system would therefore promote cultural familiarity. The case studies however point to the loss of essential cultural elements central to traditional medicine in this particular area while users travel long distances to reach the healers. In addition, there are significant paradigm differences that may present obstacles to integration of the two systems. More problematic however is that integration is, as in many development interventions, a top-down policy that is rarely based on contextual realities and conditions. Instead, integration is often defined and dominated by biomedical professionals and health planners who may be unfamiliar or even hostile to some aspects of traditional medicine. Furthermore, integration efforts have tended to embrace selected components mostly herbal medicine. This has led to isolating herbal medicine from spiritualism, which may in turn affect the holistic perspective of traditional medicine. While familiarity and relevance may explain the continued use of traditional medicine, its services may not be as readily available, accessible, or even affordable as is often asserted. Globalization set in motion through colonization and ensuing modernization processes, including urbanization, education, religion, and a neo-liberal economic system, have introduced a social order creating physical as well as social distances between users of traditional medicine and the healers.

Objective: Indigenous people's ceremonies using rhythm and dance have been used for countless generations throughout the world for healing, conflict resolution, social bonding, and spiritual experience. A previous study reported that a ceremony based on the Central African ngoma tradition was favorably received by a group of Americans. The present trial compared the effects of the modified ngoma ceremony (Ngoma) with those of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) in a randomized pilot study. Methods: Twenty-one women were randomized to either Ngoma or MBSR. Both groups had sessions on a weekly basis for 8 weeks and completed questionnaires at baseline, week 8, and 1 month after the intervention. Participants completed questionnaires, which included self-report of depressive and anxiety symptoms, health status (e.g., quality of life and functioning), social bonding, and perception of the credibility of the two interventions. Results: Both groups showed improvements in depression, anxiety, emotional well being, and social functioning as measured by respective scales. Social bonding also increased in both groups during the study and may be a mechanism for both interventions. Participants found both interventions credible. Conclusions: In this pilot study, Ngoma showed significant and durable beneficial effects comparable to MBSR. The effects of Ngoma and other indigenous rhythm-dance ceremonies on distress and health status in western culture should be investigated in larger clinical studies.

Background Cross-cultural studies indicate that every culture has its own particular explanations for health and illness and its own healing strategies. The Konso people have always practiced indigenous medicine and have multifaceted accounts or multiple dimensions of illness perceptions and health-care beliefs and practices. This paper describes how perceptions of health and illness are instrumental in health and treatment outcomes among the Konso people in southwestern Ethiopia. Results may provide an understanding of the perceptions of health and illness in relation to the local cosmology, religion, and environment. Methods The ethnographic method was employed to generate evidence, complemented by focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, and direct observation. Thematic analysis was employed to categorize and interpret the data. Results Findings indicate that the Konso people’s worldview, particularly as it relates to health, illness, and healing systems, is closely linked to their day-to-day lives. Older people believe illnesses are caused by a range of supernatural forces, including the wrath of God or local gods, oritta (spirit possession), and karayitta (ancestral spirits), and they use culturally prescribed treatment. Young and formally educated members of the community attribute causes of diseases to germitta (germs) and factorta (bacteria) and tend to seek treatment mostly in modern health facilities. Conclusion Perceptions of health and illness as well as of healing are part of Konso people’s worldview. Local communities comprehend health problems and solutions within their cultural frame of reference, which has changed over the years. The Konso people associate their health situations with socio-cultural and religious factors. The individual’s behavior and interactions with the social, natural, and supernatural powers affect the well-being of the whole group. The individual, the family, the clan leaders, and the deceased are intimately linked to one’s culturally based health beliefs and are associated by the Konso with health problems and illnesses.

Submitted by BÁRBARA PACHECO CARITA SIMOES LOPES null (ba.lopes08@gmail.com) on 2017-06-27T19:42:49Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Barbara_Lopes_dissertacao completa_27jun.pdf: 4435164 bytes, checksum: 61bb45f0c38920856efe44492223bdf5 (MD5) Approved for entry into archive by Luiz Galeffi (luizgaleffi@gmail.com) on 2017-06-28T20:06:55Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 lopes_bpcs_me_bot.pdf: 4435164 bytes, checksum: 61bb45f0c38920856efe44492223bdf5 (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-28T20:06:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 lopes_bpcs_me_bot.pdf: 4435164 bytes, checksum: 61bb45f0c38920856efe44492223bdf5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-05-04 Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) As plantas medicinais constituem um domínio essencial na medicina e saúde indígena. As questões de saúde e doença na medicina indígena implicam conexões entre natureza, cultura, questões físicas e espirituais. Para os Kaxinawá, as doenças não possuem causas únicas, sendo produzidas por um conjunto de forças internas e externas, enquanto os desenvolvimentos físico, mental, emocional e espiritual estão relacionados entre si. Este trabalho busca compreender os elementos presentes na medicina Kaxinawá, apresentando características relacionadas à manipulação das plantas de uso medicinal em processos de saúde e doença. Assim, o objetivo geral desta pesquisa é realizar um levantamento etnobotânico das plantas medicinais utilizadas pelos Kaxinawá e, por meio de seu registro, contribuir para o fortalecimento da resiliência do sistema tradicional de saúde indígena envolvido. Esta pesquisa realiza-se com a participação das cinco comunidades da Terra Indígena Kaxinawá de Nova Olinda (TIKNO), no Alto Rio Envira, município de Feijó - AC, Brasil. A coleta dos dados foi realizada em quatro viagens de campo, por meio da observação participante e de 41 entrevistas semi-estruturadas para o levantamento das informações socioculturais dos/as participantes, e das plantas medicinais com a técnica da lista livre. A análise de dados foi quali-quantitativa. Foram utilizados parâmetros da etnobotânica quantitativa e a criação de categorias analíticas de agrupamento em função dos usos das plantas medicinais listadas. A alimentação está intimamente relacionada à saúde e foi percebida uma forte relação entre os usos das plantas e as figuras de animais que perfazem a caça consumida. As características dos alimentos e contextos individuais ou sociais podem determinar sintomas ou doenças e relacionam-se ao diagnóstico e à escolha do remédio utilizado. A partir de um primeiro olhar sobre os usos etnobotânicos das plantas medicinais na TIKNO, sua riqueza e abrangência, é possível perceber o reflexo da apropriação sociocultural da biodiversidade local e da cosmovisão Kaxinawá no entendimento de saúde e doença. As práticas para manutenção da saúde enfatizam a importância das plantas medicinais e do conhecimento tradicional dos Kaxinawá, o que também evidencia a relevância de seu registro. Medicinal plants are a fundamental domain in Indigenous Medicine and health. Health and sickness matters in the Indigenous Medicine imply in connections among Nature, Culture, physical and spiritual subjects. For the Kaxinawá, diseases are not related to a single root, but are originated in a series of internal and external forces, as the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual developments are linked. The present study envoys to comprehend the elements present in the Kaxinawá Medicine, presenting characteristics related to the medicinal plants in health and sickness processes. Therefore, the objective of this study is to attain a ethnobotanical data collection regarding medicinal plants employed by the Kaxinawá and, through such record, to contribute to the strengthening of the related traditional indigenous health system resilience. This research was accomplished through the involvement of four communities from the Terra Indígena Kaxinauá de Nova Olinda (TIKNO), in the Alto Rio Envira, in the city of Feijó – AC, Brazil. Data collection was done through participating observation and 41 semi-structured interviews for the listing of sociocultural information of the participants, and for the medicinal plants the free listing technic was employed. Data analysis was quali-quantitative. Quantitative Ethnobotany parameters and the analytical categorization of grouping regarding employ functions of the listed medicinal plants were applied. Medicinal plants, for the Kaxinauá, are the equivalent for “Medicine”. Eating is intimately related to health and a strong relation between plant usage and animal models that represent the consumed game animal was noticed. Food characteristics and individual or social contexts can determine symptoms or diseases and are related to the diagnosis and medicine choice. From a first glance on the ethnobotanic usage of medicinal plants in the TIKNO, their richness and coverage, the repercussion of the local biodiversity sociocultural appropriation and the Kaxinauá worldview on health and disease can be perceived. The practices for health maintenance stress the medicinal plants and the Kaxinawá traditional knowledge importance, as well as the relevance of such record.

This thesis explores the relationship between Indigenous knowledge and Australian settler perceptions of medicinal practice by examining the manufacturing and use of dugong oil. It tracks the growth of the dugong industry in Moreton Bay in the mid-nineteenth century, before analysing the way in which dugong oil made its way through the hands of medical practitioners into newspaper advertisements and exhibitions from Australia to Europe. At this time, Australia was following Britain in the move to professionalise medicine despite a continuing popularity of heterodox and home treatments. Discoveries‘ of new medicinal remedies by medical professionals blur the lines of orthodox and unorthodox medicine and add another dimension to this history. Specifically, the case of dugong oil, learned from the Indigenous inhabitants, shows the interconnectedness of the dominant and the minority stories, shedding new light on the history of medicine, products, exchange and ideas in the age of empire.

India has a population of 1.21 billion people and there is a high degree of socio-cultural, linguistic, and demographic heterogeneity. There is a limited number of health care professionals, especially doctors, per head of population. The National Rural Health Mission has decided to mainstream the Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy (AYUSH) system of indigenous medicine to help meet the challenge of this shortage of health care professionals and to strengthen the delivery system of the health care service. Multiple interventions have been implemented to ensure a systematic merger; however, the anticipated results have not been achieved as a result of multiple challenges and barriers. To ensure the accessibility and availability of health care services to all, policy-makers need to implement strategies to facilitate the mainstreaming of the AYUSH system and to support this system with stringent monitoring mechanisms.

In India, the traditional association of a jāti with its occupation is deeply embedded within the caste system. Yet, this social organisation that prevailed in the past is slowly but surely changing, due to social and economic changes that contemporary Indian society has to face. If one cannot deny that the relationship between jāti and occupation does still remain, transmission modalities of the different kinds of knowledge related to a traditional jāti’s occupation are nevertheless deeply changing, whether they are discontinued, or revived in new perspectives. In Tamil Nadu, practice of astrology and indigenous medicine has never been the prerogative of one community, even if these toḻil, castes’ occupations, generally fall to high castes, not to say Brahmins. However, in this south-eastern Indian state, an Ex-Untouchable community, the Valluvars, seems to have a preeminent role in cōciyam and nāṭu-maruttuvam (or nāṭu-maruntu), respectively the practice of astrology and indigenous medicine. Indeed, Valluvars are seen as the best astrologers, cōciyaṉ, as well as the ‘traditional’ physicians, nāṭu-maruttuvaṉ, of Tamil country.

Se hace un análisis del efecto del colonialismo y su violencia cultural sobre los grupos étnicos indígenas y el papel del proceso de reetnización en la redefinición de sus elementos culturales, su salud y las prácticas culturales que les caracterizan actualmente; se ilustró con el ejemplo de la comunidad reetnizada indígena muisca de Cota. In this paper, an analysis on the effect of colonialism and its cultural violence on the ethnic native groups is done taking into account the role of the re-indigenization process in the redefinition of their cultural elements, their health and the cultural practices that currently distinguish them. The re-indigenization of the Cota Muisca native community was set as an example.

BACKGROUND: National policy on medical pluralism in India encourages the mainstreaming of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy) systems and the revitalization of local health traditions (LHT). In Meghalaya state in the northeast, the main LHT is its indigenous tribal traditional medicine. This paper presents the perceptions of tribal medicine and of AYUSH systems among various policy actors and locates the tribal medicine of Meghalaya within the policy on medical pluralism currently being implemented in the state, a region that is ethnically and culturally different and predominantly inhabited by indigenous peoples. METHODS: A stakeholder mapping exercise identified appropriate policy actors and 46 in-depth interviews were conducted with policy makers, doctors, academics, members of healer associations and elders of the community. A further 44 interviews were conducted with 24 Khasi and 20 Garo traditional healers. Interview data were supplemented with document analysis and observations. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic content analysis that incorporated elements of grounded theory. RESULTS: In Meghalaya there is high awareness and utilization of tribal medicine, but no visible efforts by the public sector to support or engage with healers. The AYUSH systems in contrast had little local acceptance but promotion of these systems has led to a substantial increase in AYUSH doctors, particularly homeopaths, in rural areas. Policy actors outside the health department saw an important role for tribal medicine due to its popularity, local belief in its efficacy and its cultural resonance. The need to engage with healers to enhance referral, training, documentation and research of tribal medicine was made. CONCLUSIONS: The wide acceptance of tribal medicine suggests that tribal medicine needs to be supported. The results of the study question the process of the implementation of the 'mainstreaming AYUSH' policy for Meghalaya and highlight the importance of contextualizing health policy within the local culture. A potential role for Health Policy and Systems Research (HPSR) at sub-national levels is also highlighted.

The author offers a number of suggestions and reflections after a fieldwork experience in Bolivia let him explore the merits that an intercultural approach applied to health care-related issues have for a better relationship between westernized physicians and their indigenous patients. Indigenous definitions of health and illness refer to concepts that are qualitatively very different from those used in Bio-medicine. Indigenous drugs are especially intended more for the recovery of the «human being» in his or her cultural context than for the cure of the sick organ on which the bio-medical doctor focuses. Issues such as gender, perception of the body, bodily fluids and nakedness are critical in this potentially conflictive environment. From Bolivia's intercultural experience one can draw some insights into the health care-related problems arising in Spain in connection with the growing immigrant population in the country.El artículo recoge diferentes sugerencias y reflexiones a partir de una experiencia antropológica de campo realizada en Bolivia sobre las posibilidades que un enfoque intercultural aplicado a la salud puede ofrecer para una mejor relación entre los equipos médicos convencionales y los enfermos indígenas. Las formas indígenas en que se definen la salud y la enfermedad aluden a conceptos cualitativamente muy diferenciados de los correspondientes de la biomedicina. Las medicinas indígenas persiguen, en especial, la recuperación del «ser humano» en su contexto cultural y no tanto del órgano dañado como hace la biomedicina. Aspectos como el género, la concepción del cuerpo, los fluidos o la desnudez, cobran importancia en esas relaciones conflictivas. La experiencia intercultural boliviana permite realizar, finalmente, en el artículo algunas valoraciones últimas sobre inmigración y salud en España.

International audience; This is a study of the emergence of new institutional arenas for ayurveda and yunani medicine, collectivized at the time as ‘indigenous medicine,’ in a semi-autonomous State (Mysore) in late colonial India. The study argues that the characteristic dimensions of this process were compromise and misalignment between ideals of governance and modes of pedagogy and practice. Running counter to a narrative that the Princely States such as Mysore were instrumental for the ‘preservation’ of ayurveda, this study analyzes the process of negotiation and struggle between a variety of actors engaged with shaping the direction of institutionalized ‘indigenous medicine’. In examining the entanglements over the priorities of the state administration and the conflicting desires and ideals of protagonists, the study problematizes the idea of studying the encounter between the ‘state’ and ‘indigenous medicine,’ in order rather to highlight their co-production and the tensions which were generated in the process. While institution-making for ayurveda and yunani in Mysore State assumed distinctive translocal forms, themes of divergence that were unresolved during the time of this study, over the role of the state, the politics of validation, appropriate curricula and pedagogy, and their relation to practice and employment, continue to inform the trajectories of state-directed health provision through ‘indigenous medicine’ on larger scales [India, health-care, ayurveda, yunani, education].

International audience; Varmakkalai, 'the art of the vital spots', combines therapeutic and martial techniques: Varmam spots are of combative relevance, but also applicable in curing ailments. This paper depicts how far this South Indian practice figures simultaneously in the kaḷari, the training ground where combat techniques called varma aṭi, 'hitting the vital spots', are taught, and in the vaittiyacālai, the dispensary for varma maruttuvam, 'vital spot treatments'. Injuries incurred in the kaḷari are addressed in the vaittiyacālai, and apprentices' learning progress in one surrounding can be measured by their prowess in the other. Both physical and mental skills acquired combine in a kind of psycho-somatic intuition--the medical and martial competence of practitioners. Such intersections of medicine and martial practices are not normally recognised by 'Western' taxonomies or educational models, which tend to segregate such aspects, labelling one as 'arts' or 'sports' and the other as 'science'. However, this paper describes the very combination of medically and martially relevant aspects of varmam as not only complementary, but as the most decisive feature of varmakkalai.

A double blind clinical drug trial was conducted to see the efficacy of an indigenous drug made up of aqueous extract of Neem leaves in 50 cases of uncomplicated psoriasis taking conventional coal tar regime. Patients taking drug in addition to coal tar had shown a quicker and better response in comparison to placebo group. No any untoward effect was noticed during the period of trial. Probable mode of action is discussed.

This dissertation focuses on the cultivation of specialized corporeal capacities of therapeutic power and transcendence among Ifá medical-ritual specialists in Yorùbá communities in contemporary Nigeria (and the resonance and implications of their practices within a global context). Rather than interrogate "medical (and/or religious) knowledge" as the object of inquiry, this project explores the power of the learning process -- as a practice of everyday living -- to cultivate, within student-apprentice and healer-sage alike, a distinctive (sonically and spiritually informed) somatic mode of being-in, perceiving, interpreting, and attending-to-the-world, and thus, to orchestrate Ifá's distinctive medical and religious life-world. In so doing, this dissertation seeks to redress the historical stigmatization of African and Diasporic religions, subjectivities, and knowledges within the scholarly and popular imaginations and to contribute to recent scholarship on sensuous and sacred ways of knowing. An ethnography of embodiment, the senses, and practices of everyday living, this work is fundamentally informed, methodologically and theoretically, by a phenomenological approach and the author's embodied experiences (as a professionally trained dancer; as a physician; and -- in her extensive training and continuous, on-going learning process -- as an Ifá healer-specialist). Focusing on the embodied and the sensorial as formative principles in, respectively, the mundane and specialized medical-devotional (Ifá) life-worlds of the Yorùbá, this project explores the ways in which the sonically-informed sensorium of Yorùbá society -- as articulated through common and specialized practices of everyday living -- cultivates (and naturalizes) particular ways of being-in, attending-to, and making-sense-of intersubjective experience and the phenomenally given world for the populace at large and for Ifá specialists, in particular. Specifically, this research claims that in the training and devotional development of Ifá apprentices and priests/esses, embodied techniques of everyday scholarly-devotional practice that cultivate a corporeal resonance with the earth are key. These distinctive embodied practices initially engender shifts and ruptures in the apprentice's mundane habitus, while simultaneously facilitating the gradual incorporation of the priestly habitus with its associated sensibilities of "coolness," permeability, and containment. These practices of everyday living also facilitate conscious, dispassionate communion with Divine Presence, and thus revelatory knowledge (the embodied certainty known as erí okòn). Gradually, with experience and practice, the healer-priest/ess is able to consciously direct aspects of Divine Presence-as-healing-force for the therapeutic benefit of others. Finally, after years of daily scholarly-devotional practice, these musical-embodied practices are refined and body forth a special -- sonic and incorporative -- somatic mode of being-in and attending-to-the-world particular to Ifá, known as "a stomach as deep as a calabash" (inú t'ó jìnlè bi igbá), in which Divine Presence is incorporated, as co-presence, within the corporeality and being-in-the-world of the healer-sage. And this particular sonically-informed mode of being-in-the-world is characterized by corporeal capacities of phenomenologically potent therapeutic power and transcendence. Thus, this research proposes that Ifá practice is a techne of musical corporeality, wherein the healer-sage consciously and dispassionately orchestrates aspects of Divine Presence for the therapeutic, aesthetic, existential/transcendent enhancement of the individual, the priesthood, and the community. This dissertation also asserts the primacy of engagement in everyday scholarly-devotional practices, over time, in bodying forth wisdom, knowledge, and healing power among Ifá healers and sages; and therefore, claims that the historical privileging of "initiations" of "ritual" and/or ethnomedical specialists in anthropological and religious scholarship is both misplaced and misleading. In West Africa, Ifá specialists are trained for years before being recognized or accepted as qualified practitioners. And it is through the individual practitioner's engagement in the formative practices of the learning process -- much more than in an overly mystified "initiatory moment(s)" -- that Ifá's specialized life-world, orientations, and corporeal capacities of therapeutic power and transcendence are made real and palpable.In Ifá practice, the sensuous and affective body is the pregnant nexus from which, and through which, innovative knowledge, healing (regenerative therapeutics) and subjectivity continually emerge. Thus, in contrast to Bourdieu's (1977) privileging of the conservative and congealing aspects of practice and habitus, Ifá practice highlights (and cultivates) the body's inherent plasticity and malleability, and its capacity to incorporate -- literally to embody -- innovation, as sonically-informed sensibilities. This embodied agency has the potential to transform inter-subjective relations in/and the phenomenally given world. In particular, the phenomenological and therapeutic power of Ifá's healing orchestrations dramatically highlight that, in addition to the technological instrumentality of biomedicine, there are other ways of constituting real and effective therapeutic power. And, given the shifts and flows of globalization as well as the emergence of complementary, alternative, and integrative medicine within biomedical institutions and practices, this has significant implications, theoretically and practically, for the challenges inherent in attending to the complexities of human suffering in the contemporary global moment.

Las diferentes alternativas médicas con que hoy cuenta la humanidad enriquecen tanto la profilaxis, como los diagnósticos y los tratamientos mismos de las enfermedades, cuando éstas se abordan desde un marco multicausal. El siguiente artículo hace una reflexión alrededor de dos alternativas: la medicina occidental y la medicina indígena. Se focaliza en la concepción de salud que manejan estas dos formas de conocimiento, se hace hincapié en la necesidad de revalorar la medicina indígena, y se plantea a grosso modo cómo desde la medicina indígena se ven las alteraciones en la salud mental. El autor resalta que para comprender la concepción de salud mental que puedan tener los pueblos indígenas, se hace necesario entender la cosmogonía y cosmología propia de esos pueblos. The different medical alternatives used today by humanity enrich the prophylaxis as well as the diagnoses and the treatment of diseases when these are tackled within a multicausal framework. In this paper two of these alternatives are considered: Western medicine and indigenous medicine. It focuses on the concept of health developed by these two approaches, emphasizes the need to reassess indigenous medicine, and examines in general how mental health disorders are regarded from the point of view of indigenous medicine. The author stresses that in order to understand this conception it is necessary to get acquainted with the cosmogony and cosmology characteristics of indigenous people.

The aim of this paper is to consider a specific field of Amerindian knowledge, namely the sarode or curing songs of the Ayoreo of the Gran Chaco, and to try to elucidate some of the taken-for-granted metaphysical assumptions that underlie Ayoreo epistemology. Following the approach taken in Joanna Overing's introduction to Reason and Morality (1985), I will suggest that even these apparently simple, repetitive curing songs have to be understood as part of a broader corpus of "mythical" knowledge and acquire their effectiveness or power, not through suggestion or metaphor but rather by harnessing the power of the "mythical" world of the jnani bajade, the "original beings" that were and still are both Ayoreo and the Ancestors or Masters of the present-day animals, plants and minerals. O objetivo deste artigo é analisar uma área específica do conhecimento indígena, os sarode ou cantos de cura dos Ayoreo do Gran Chaco, para poder esclarecer algumas das bases metafísicas da epistemologia ayoreo. O estudo se fundamenta no enfoque que Joanna Overing propõe na introdução de sua obra Reason and Morality (1985) e sugere que, apesar de serem simples e repetitivos, os cantos de cura pertencem a um corpus mais amplo de conhecimentos "míticos" e derivam sua eficácia e poder não tanto da sugestão ou da metáfora, mas sim de sua capacidade de captar o poder do mundo mítico dos jnani bajade, os "seres originários", que são ao mesmo tempo Ayoreo e os antepassados ou donos dos que hoje em dia são animais, plantas e minerais.

Background: In developing countries the situation in health care has become so complex that medical or biological terms alone cannot effectively assess it. After the Second World War particularly concomitant with the development of international public health programs the need to get information on the cultural and social factors that affect health paved a way for the contribution of anthropologists. This increased acceptance of cultural influence on health has led to the frequent use and elaboration of terms like illness, sickness and disease. The aim of this paper is to investigate how the people of Addis Ababa consider health, disease and illness. It also examines the conceptual differences of disease, illness, and health. Method: The data were collected in Addis Ababa from June 1998 to January 1999 by employing the fundamental techniques of anthropological investigation: participant observation and interviews. In this research healers, patients, elders, and cosmopolitan medicine workers were interviewed and observed. Result: The people believe that health is the equilibrium between organs in a body, and the equilibrium between the body as a whole and the outside environment. Furthermore, it is found out that the people could not differentiate disease from that of an illness. Conclusion: Despite the increasing supply of modern manufactured drugs traditional medicines have continued to be widely used in Ethiopia. The availability of medicines and their plants abundantly in the markets of towns show how traditional medicine is popular among the urban residents. Key Words: Health, disease, illness, somatization, indigenous medicine, cosmopolitan medicine Annals of African Medicine Vol.3(1 ) 2004: 28-31

Las diferentes alternativas médicas con que hoy cuenta la humanidad enriquecen tanto la profilaxis, como los diagnósticos y los tratamientos mismos de las enfermedades, cuando éstas se abordan desde un marco multicausal. El siguiente artículo hace una reflexión alrededor de dos alternativas: la medicina occidental y la medicina indígena. Se focaliza en la concepción de salud que manejan estas dos formas de conocimiento, se hace hincapié en la necesidad de revalorar la medicina indígena, y se plantea a grosso modo cómo desde la medicina indígena se ven las alteraciones en la salud mental. El autor resalta que para comprender la concepción de salud mental que puedan tener los pueblos indígenas, se hace necesario entender la cosmogonía y cosmología propia de esos pueblos. The different medical alternatives used today by humanity enrich the prophylaxis as well as the diagnoses and the treatment of diseases when these are tackled within a multicausal framework. In this paper two of these alternatives are considered: Western medicine and indigenous medicine. It focuses on the concept of health developed by these two approaches, emphasizes the need to reassess indigenous medicine, and examines in general how mental health disorders are regarded from the point of view of indigenous medicine. The author stresses that in order to understand this conception it is necessary to get acquainted with the cosmogony and cosmology characteristics of indigenous people.

The problem of indigeneity and local knowledge in medicine concerns the way in which 17th-century European physicians reacted to the spread of exotic remedies and treatments in official pharmacopoeia and therapeutics. In 1644, the Dutch physician Jan van Beverwyck wrote the first treatise on “indigenous medicine”, Autarkeia Bataviae, sive introductio ad medicinam indigenam, defending the autarkeia, which means the self-sufficiency and independence of Dutch medicine. However, how did this debate develop at the end of the seventeenth century? I will focus my paper, in particular, on Robert Sibbald and Giorgio Baglivi, both supporting, albeit from different viewpoints, the indigenous medicine within a Hippocratic-Baconian methodology. In Scotia Illustrata (1684), Sibbald, just like van Beverwyck, supports a “Scottish” medicine, invoking the same idea of self-sufficiency. In De praxi medica (1696), Baglivi, however, addresses this issue strictly in methodological terms: no matter how convincing theories might be, if physicians ignore geo-climatic factors and the natural history of the “local”, they cannot heal their patients properly.