Plants and Health: New Perspectives on the Health-Environment-Plant Nexus (Ethnobiology)

"This volume showcases current ethnobiological accounts of the ways that people use plants to promote human health and well-being. The goal in this volume is to highlight some contemporary examples of how plants are central to various aspects of healthy environments and healthy minds and bodies. Authors employ diverse analytic frameworks, including: interpretive and constructivist, cognitive, political-ecological, systems theory, phenomenological, and critical studies of the relationship between humans, plants and the environment. The case studies represent a wide geographical range and explore the diversity in the health appeals of plants and herbs. The volume begins by considering how plants may intrinsically be 'healthful' and the notion that ecosystem health may be a literal concept used in contemporary efforts to increase awareness of environmental degradation. The book continues with the exploration of the ways in which medically-pluralistic societies demonstrate the entanglements between the environment, the state and its citizens. Profit driven models for the extraction and production of medicinal plant products are explored in terms of health equity and sovereignty. Some of the chapters in this volume work to explore medicinal plant knowledge and the globalization of medicinal plant knowledge. The translocal and global networks of medicinal plant knowledge are pivotal to productions of medicinal and herbal plant remedies that are used by people in all variety of societies and cultural groups. Humans produce health through various means and interact with our environments, especially plants, in order to promote health. The ethnographic accounts of people, plants, and health in this volume will be of interest to the fields of anthropology, biology and ethnobiology, as well as allied disciplines."--Provided by publisher Preface 5 Acknowledgements 7 Contents 8 About the Editors 9 Contributors 11 Traditional and Nontraditional Medicine in a Yucatec Maya Community 12 Introduction 12 Dimensions of Yucatec Maya Medicine 13 Healers and Using Medicines 20 Biocultural Approach to Understanding Maya Medicine 22 Conclusion 24 References 26 Becoming-Plant: Jamu in Java, Indonesia 28 Introduction 28 Java and Jamu 30 Rasa 35 Cluster 39 Lines 52 Rhizomes 66 The Tree 71 References 72 Medicinal Plants in Bangladesh: Planting Seeds of Care in the Weeds of Neoliberalism 77 Introduction 77 Self-Care and the Neoliberal Global Economy in Bangladesh 81 Sharing Herbal Gardens, Reclaiming Indigenous Knowledge 83 Community Gardens and Self-Care 86 Krishok Forum: Navigating Herbal Networks and Markets 90 Herbal Policies and Politics 95 Conclusion 98 References 99 Shaping Strong People: Napo Runa Therapeutic Narratives of Medicinal Plant Use 102 Introduction 102 The Ethnographic Setting 105 Napo Runa 106 Methods 107 Background 107 Health and the Body 109 Amazonian Notions of the Body 110 Plants and Health in Amazonia 112 Ecuadorian Ethnobotanical Inquiry 112 Napo Runa Plant Medicine (Sacha Ambi) 113 Producing Strong Persons with Plants 115 Shinzhiyachina: Strengthening Bodies 115 Micro-myths: Strengthening Memory of Past Acts of Caring and Curing 117 Llushtinda Muyu: Strengthening as Resistance 119 Conclusions 121 References 123 Using Plants as Medicines and Health Foods in Southern Jalisco 126 Introduction 126 Medical Pluralism in Mexico 127 Conceptual Framework 128 Medicinal Plants and Healing in Mexico 129 Sociopolitical Dimensions of Non-biomedical Practitioners in Mexico 130 Location 132 Data Collection 133 Biographical Vignettes 134 Debra (Homeopathic Physician) 135 Daniel (Iridologist and Natural Healer) 135 Fernanda (Natural Healer, Chiropractor, Masseuse) 136 Conclusion 138 References 139 What If There Is a Cure Somewhere in the Jungle? States of Emergence in Medicinal Plant Becomings 141 Introduction 141 Seeking a “Magic Bullet” Cure: The Issue of Efficacy 150 Soil and Becoming 154 Emergent Medicines, Emergent Natures 158 “No Resumido”: Relational Approaches and Sustainability 162 Concluding Remarks 164 References 166 Transmission, Sharing, and Variation of Medicinal Plant Knowledge and Implications for Health 171 Introduction 171 The Variation Problem 172 Transmission, Sharing, and Variation with the Highland Maya 172 Generalized Medicinal Plant Knowledge 173 How Variation Occurs 174 Shannon–Weiner Index as a Measure of Variation 174 Possible Explanatory Factors 176 Conclusions 177 References 177 Index 179 This volume showcases current ethnobiological accounts of the ways that people use plants to promote human health and well-being. The goal in this volume is to highlight some contemporary examples of how plants are central to various aspects of healthy environments and healthy minds and bodies. Authors employ diverse analytic frameworks, including: interpretive and constructivist, cognitive, political-ecological, systems theory, phenomenological, and critical studies of the relationship between humans, plants and the environment. The case studies represent a wide geographical range and explore the diversity in the health appeals of plants and herbs. The volume begins by considering how plants may intrinsically be {u2018}healthful{u2019} and the notion that ecosystem health may be a literal concept used in contemporary efforts to increase awareness of environmental degradation. The book continues with the exploration of the ways in which medically-pluralistic societies demonstrate the entanglements between the environment, the state and its citizens. Profit driven models for the extraction and production of medicinal plant products are explored in terms of health equity and sovereignty. Some of the chapters in this volume work to explore medicinal plant knowledge and the globalization of medicinal plant knowledge. The translocal and global networks of medicinal plant knowledge are pivotal to productions of medicinal and herbal plant remedies that are used by people in all variety of societies and cultural groups. Humans produce health through various means and interact with our environments, especially plants, in order to promote health. The ethnographic accounts of people, plants, and health in this volume will be of interest to the fields of anthropology, biology and ethnobiology, as well as allied disciplines Front Matter....Pages i-xiii Traditional and Nontraditional Medicine in a Yucatec Maya Community....Pages 1-16 Becoming-Plant: Jamu in Java, Indonesia....Pages 17-65 Medicinal Plants in Bangladesh: Planting Seeds of Care in the Weeds of Neoliberalism....Pages 67-91 Shaping Strong People: Napo Runa Therapeutic Narratives of Medicinal Plant Use....Pages 93-116 Using Plants as Medicines and Health Foods in Southern Jalisco....Pages 117-131 What If There Is a Cure Somewhere in the Jungle? States of Emergence in Medicinal Plant Becomings....Pages 133-162 Transmission, Sharing, and Variation of Medicinal Plant Knowledge and Implications for Health....Pages 163-170 Back Matter....Pages 171-175