Ethnomedicine, a subdiscipline of medical anthropology, was first driven by an interest in the history of medicine, ethnobotany, folk medi...
Ethnomedicine is more ethnic, more magical and less scientific. Ethnomedical beliefs and practices were the products of indigenous cultural developments outside of “modern medicine.” In Oman, the information on traditional ethnomedicine practice is not transferred from generation to generation in written form but is verbally inherited from the elder members of the family. Indigenous people represent living libraries of medicinal plant knowledge that are being lost as they merge with modern society. Each culture contains a unique system of medicine with different degrees of emphasis on the mental, physical and spiritual aspects of healing.
The use of plants and plant products as medicine can be traced as far back as the beginning of human civilization. The earliest record of medicinal plant use in the Himalayas is found in the Rigveda. This work was written between 4500 BC and 1600 BC, is supposed to be the oldest repository of human knowledge and describes 67 plants. After the Rigveda, Ayurveda (the foundation of the science of life and the art of healing of Hindu culture) describes the medicinal importance of 1200 plants. The Charak or Caraka Samhita (900 BC) and Susruta Samhita (500 BC) enumerate the art of surgery, therapeutics and medicines in detail based on Atharvaveda. The knowledge of using these systems was accessed by Nepali Vaishyas and Kabirajs as early as about 879 AD. Therefore, the Ayurvedic physicians were incorporating medicinal plants in traditional Ayurvedic formulations from early on and the Ayurvedic system is reputed all over the Indian subcontinent since time immemorial.
In any case, many forms of 'Eastern' medicine, such as traditional Chinese medicine, are examples of ethnomedicine. This means techniques like herbal therapy, acupressure, and acupuncture are some well-known practical examples of ethnomedicine as well. Another example of ethnomedicine is Ayurvedic medicine. This practice may involve the use of oils, massage, and even laxatives to help restore a person's harmony and balance and cleanse their body.
The anthropology of biomedicine in the late 1970s and early 1980s permanently altered the perception of biomedicine. The view of it as a cultural, rational, and scientific rapidly became unsustainable. The theory and practice of biomedicine are thoroughly cultural and local, with distinct local biologies underlying biomedical research and practice in the West and beyond, as with the notions of “race,” that shape scientific/ medical research and practice. Biomedical theory and practice are also gendered and generally ignores differential social status and its attendant differences in mortality and morbidity and the geography of affliction.
Due to changing life, perception and lifestyle changes of the forest dwellers, as well as commercialization and socio-economic transformation on a global scale, there is a general observation that the plants are exacerbated and that indigenous knowledge on resource use is being degraded severely. One of the major misconceptions western society has of ethnomedicine is that it is ineffective. Many associates the ideas of “magic” and “witch doctors” with traditional medicine, when in fact many researchers have found that these herbal medicines can be very effective.
A study conducted by Daniel Fabricant and Norman Farnsworth in the Journal of Environmental Health Perspectives found that we still have a lot to learn from traditional medical methods, and threats to traditional cultures may hinder these findings.
REFERENCES
1. Green, Edward C. “Sexually Transmitted Disease, Ethnomedicine and Health Policy in Africa.” Social Science & Medicine(1992)
2. J. Bhat, M. Kumar, and R. Bussmann, “Ecological status and traditional knowledge of medicinal plants in Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary of Garhwal Himalaya, India,” Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, vol. 9, article 1, 2013.
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4. S. K. Marwat, M. A. Khan, M. Ahmad, M. Zafar, and F. Rehman, “Ethnomedicines for treatment of various diseases in D.I. Khan District,” Sarhad Journal of Agriculture, vol. 24, article 2, 2008.
5.Acharya, Deepak and Shrivastava Anshu: Indigenous Herbal Medicines: Tribal Formulations and Traditional Herbal Practices. Aavishkar Publishers Distributor, Jaipur / India 2008, ISBN 978-81-7910-252-7, p. 440.
Suraj Poudel
19th Batch
SHAS, Pokhara University
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