Ethnomedicine

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Social and cultural anthropology

Ethnomedicine is a study or comparison of the traditional medicine practiced by various ethnic groups, and especially by indigenous peoples. The word ethnomedicine is sometimes used as a synonym for traditional medicine.

Ethnomedical research is interdisciplinary; in its study of traditional medicines, it applies the methods of ethnobotany and medical anthropology. Often, the medicine traditions it studies are preserved only by oral tradition.

Scientific ethnomedical studies constitute either anthropological research or drug discovery research. Anthropological studies examine the cultural perception and context of a traditional medicine. The purpose of drug discovery research is to identify and develop a marketable pharmaceutical product.

Ethnopharmacy

Ethnopharmacology is a related study of ethnic groups and their use of drugs. Ethnopharmacology is distinctly linked to plant use, ethnobotany, as this is the main delivery of pharmaceuticals. Ethnopharmacy is the interdisciplinary science that investigates the perception and use of pharmaceuticals (especially, but not limited to, traditional medicines), within a given human society.

It deals with the study of the pharmaceutical means considered in relation to the cultural contexts of their use, e.g. the study of the cultural determinants that characterise the uses of these means within a culture. It involves studies of the:

1. identification and ethnotaxonomy (cognitive categorisation) of the (eventual) natural material, from which the remedy will be produced (medical ethnobiology: ethnobotany or ethnomycology or ethnozoology);
2. traditional preparation of the pharmaceutical forms (ethnopharmaceutics);
3. bio-evaluation of the pharmacological action of such preparations (ethnopharmacology);
4. their clinical effectiveness (clinical ethnopharmacy);
5. socio-medical aspects implied in the uses of these pharmaceuticals (medical anthropology/ethnomedicine).
6. public health and pharmacy practice-related issues concerning the public use and/or the re-evaluation of these drugs.

Ethnopharmacy shares instead a common terrain with medical anthropology and anthropology of pharmaceuticals. Ethnopharmacology also relates to pharmacoepidemiology, the study of how drugs are used by and affect large numbers of people.

When investigating a natural product used by a culture as a medicine, it is important that the methods of collection, extraction and preparation are the same or similar to those used by the ethnic group. This is to ensure consistency and legitimacy of the experimentation.

Further reading

• Lee, Roberta; Balick, Michael J. (2001). "Ethnomedicine: Ancient Wisdom for Contemporary Healing" (PDF). Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine 7 (3): 28–30. Retrieved 12 June 2013. 
• Fábrega, Horacio, Jr. Evolution of Sickness and Healing. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997. Acces apr. 2015
• Willem, Jean-Pierre (2006). L'Ethnomédecine, une alliance entre science et tradition [Ethnomedicine: An Alliance Between Science and Tradition] (in French). Paris: Jouvence & Biocontact. ISBN 2-88353-472-1. 
• Willem, Jean-Pierre (2009). Mémoires d'un médecin aux pieds nus [Memoires of a Barefoot Doctor] (in French). Paris: Éditions Albin Michel. ISBN 978-2-226-18987-5. 

See also

• Ayurveda
• Ethnobiology
• Ethnobotany
• Herbalism
• Medical research
• Medicine
• Pharmacognosy
• Shamanism
• Traditional African medicine
• Traditional Chinese medicine
• Traditional Korean medicine
• Traditional ecological knowledge
• Traditional medicine

External links

• Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
• The Institute for Ethnomedicine
• Ethnomedicine Practitioners Association of South Africa