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Ethnomedicine
Ethnomedicine is a study or comparison of the traditional medicine based on bioactive compounds in plants and animals and practiced by various ethnic groups, especially those with little access to western medicines, e.g., indigenous peoples. The word ''ethnomedicine'' is sometimes used as a synonym for ''traditional medicine''.Acharya, Deepak and Shrivastava Anshu: ''Indigenous Herbal Medicines: Tribal Formulations and Traditional Herbal Practices''. Aavishkar Publishers Distributor, Jaipur / India 2008, , p. 440. 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. In addition to plants, some of these traditions constitute significant interactions with insects on the Indian Subcontinent, in Africa, or elsewhere around the globe. Scientific ethnomedical studies constitute either anthropological research o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Medical Anthropology
Medical anthropology studies "human health and disease, health care systems, and biocultural adaptation". It views humans from multidimensional and ecological perspectives. It is one of the most highly developed areas of anthropology and applied anthropology, and is a subfield of social and cultural anthropology that examines the ways in which culture and society are organized around or influenced by issues of health, health care and related issues. The term "medical anthropology" has been used since 1963 as a label for empirical research and theoretical production by anthropologists into the social processes and cultural representations of health, illness and the nursing/care practices associated with these. Furthermore, in Europe the terms "anthropology of medicine", "anthropology of health" and "anthropology of illness" have also been used, and "medical anthropology", was also a translation of the 19th century Dutch term "medische anthropologie". This term was chosen by som ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Human Interactions With Insects In Africa
Various cultures throughout Africa utilize insects for many things and have developed unique interactions with insects: as food sources, for sale or trade in markets, or for use in traditional practices and rituals, as ethnomedicine or as part of their traditional ecological knowledge. As food, also known as entomophagy, a variety of insects are collected as part of a protein rich source of nutrition for marginal communities. Entomophagy had been part of traditional culture throughout Africa, though this activity has been diminishing gradually with the influx of Western culture and market economies. Often the collection of insects for food has been the activity of children, both male and female. Within Southern Africa different communities have established practices for regulating and maintaining their insect harvests. Some groups, through taboos, ritual, and hierarchical organizational structures acting as regulating bodies, have maintained their traditional practice for centurie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behaviour, while cultural anthropology studies cultural meaning, including norms and values. The term sociocultural anthropology is commonly used today. Linguistic anthropology studies how language influences social life. Biological anthropology, Biological (or physical) anthropology studies the biology and evolution of Human evolution, humans and their close primate relatives. Archaeology, often referred to as the "anthropology of the past," explores human activity by examining physical remains. In North America and Asia, it is generally regarded as a branch of anthropology, whereas in Europe, it is considered either an independent discipline or classified under related fields like history and palaeontology. Etymology The abstract noun ''wikt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ayurveda
Ayurveda (; ) is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. It is heavily practised throughout India and Nepal, where as much as 80% of the population report using ayurveda. The theory and practice of ayurveda is pseudoscientific and toxic metals including lead and Mercury (element), mercury are used as ingredients in many ayurvedic medicines. Ayurveda therapies have varied and evolved over more than two millennia. Therapies include herbal medicines, Dieting#Detox, special diets, Meditation#Hinduism, meditation, yoga, massage, Laxative#Historical and health fraud uses, laxatives, Enema#Alternative medicine, enemas, and medical oils. Ayurvedic preparations are typically based on complex herbal compounds, minerals, and metal substances (perhaps under the influence of early Indian alchemy or ''rasashastra''). Ancient ayurveda texts also taught surgical techniques, including rhinoplasty, lithotomy, sutures, cataract surgery, and the extraction ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Medicinal Plant
Medicinal plants, also called medicinal herbs, have been discovered and used in traditional medicine practices since prehistoric times. Plants synthesize hundreds of chemical compounds for various functions, including Plant defense against herbivory, defense and protection against insects, fungi, Plant disease resistance, diseases, against parasites and herbivorous mammals. The earliest historical records of herbs are found from the Sumerian civilization, where hundreds of medicinal plants including opium are listed on clay tablets, . The Ebers Papyrus from ancient Egypt, , describes over 850 plant medicines. The Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides, Dioscorides, who worked in the Roman army, documented over 1000 recipes for medicines using over 600 medicinal plants in , ; this formed the basis of pharmacopoeias for some 1500 years. Drug research sometimes makes use of ethnobotany to search for pharmacologically active substances, and this approach has yielded hundreds of use ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ethnobiology
] Ethnobiology is the multidisciplinary field of study of relationships among peoples, biota, and environments integrating many perspectives, from the social, biological, and medical sciences; along with application to conservation and sustainable development. The diversity of perspectives in ethnobiology allows for examining complex, dynamic interactions between human and natural systems. History Beginnings (15th century–19th century) Biologists have been interested in local biological knowledge since the time Europeans started colonising the world, from the 15th century onwards. Paul Sillitoe wrote that: Local biological knowledge, collected and sampled over these early centuries significantly informed the early development of modern biology: * during the 17th century, Georg Eberhard Rumphius benefited from local biological knowledge in producing his catalogue, ''"Herbarium Amboinense"'', covering more than 1,200 species of the plants in Indonesia; * during the 18t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Éditions Albin Michel
Éditions Albin Michel is a French publisher. In January 2019, the new President and CEO is Gilles Haéri. In January 2022, the director is Anna Pavlowitch, the daughter of Paul Pavlowitch. History It was founded in 1900 by Albin Michel. They published, first, Romain Rolland, Henri Barbusse, Roland Dorgelès, Henri Pourrat, Vercors, Robert Sabatier, and Didier Van Cauwelaert, Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt, Daphne du Maurier, Mary Higgins Clark, Stephen King or Thomas Harris. Critics In 2016,'' Le Monde'' criticized the publication of far-right authors as Éric Zemmour, Philippe de Villiers, Patrick Buisson. Robert Ménard, also published by the house and identified as far-right mayor, denounced a bad economic strategy to cancel their contract with Zemmour running for the 2022 French presidential election. Authors * Ramona Badescu * Philip K. Dick * Louis Lavelle * Emmanuelle Ménard * Robert Ménard * Éric Naulleau * Irène Némirovsky * Amélie Nothomb * Michel On ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Traditional Medicine
Traditional medicine (also known as indigenous medicine or folk medicine) refers to the knowledge, skills, and practices rooted in the cultural beliefs of various societies, especially Indigenous groups, used for maintaining health and treating illness. In some Asia, Asian and Africa, African countries, up to 80% of people rely on traditional medicine for primary health care. Traditional medicine includes systems like Ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicine, and Unani medicine, Unani. The World Health Organization supports their integration, but warns of potential risks and calls for more research on their safety and effectiveness. The use of medicinal herbs spans over 5,000 years, beginning with ancient civilizations like the Sumer, Sumerians, Ancient Egypt, Egyptians, Indian people, Indians, and Chinese people, Chinese, evolving through Ancient Greece, Greek, Ancient Rome, Roman, Islam, Islamic, and Middle Ages, medieval European traditions, and continuing into Colonial histo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shamanism
Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into the physical world for the purpose of healing, divination, or to aid human beings in some other way. Beliefs and practices categorized as shamanic have attracted the interest of scholars from a variety of disciplines, including anthropologists, archeologists, historians, religious studies scholars, philosophers, and psychologists. Hundreds of books and academic papers on the subject have been produced, with a peer-reviewed academic journal being devoted to the study of shamanism. Terminology Etymology The Modern English word ''shamanism'' derives from the Russian word , , which itself comes from the word from a Tungusic language – possibly from the southwestern dialect of the Evenki spoken by the Sym Evenki peoples, or from the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pharmacognosy
Pharmacognosy is the interdisciplinary scientific study of natural drugs and bioactive compounds from plants, animals, and minerals—originally focused on identifying crude drugs but now expanded to molecular, chemical, ecological, and medicinal aspects of natural products. Plants produce a variety of chemical compounds—primary metabolites essential for all plants and secondary metabolites with specialized roles like defense and pollination attraction—that include classes such as alkaloids, polyphenols, glycosides, and terpenes, many of which have therapeutic uses in humans and are isolated through bioassay-guided fractionation. Traditional medicine continue to inform modern pharmacology. Microscopic evaluation plays a key role in identifying herbs, detecting adulterants, and examining distinctive plant tissues through methods such as measuring leaf constants, including the stomatal index, which expresses the proportion of stomata to epidermal cells. Description The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herbalism
Herbal medicine (also called herbalism, phytomedicine or phytotherapy) is the study of pharmacognosy and the use of medicinal plants, which are a basis of traditional medicine. Scientific evidence for the effectiveness of many herbal treatments remains limited, prompting ongoing regulatory evaluation and research into their safety and efficacy. Standards for purity or dosage are generally not provided. The scope of herbal medicine sometimes includes fungi, fungal and bee products, as well as Dietary mineral, minerals, Exoskeleton, shells and certain animal parts. Paraherbalism is the Pseudoscience, pseudoscientific use of plant or animal extracts as medicine, relying on unproven beliefs about the safety and effectiveness of minimally processed natural substances. Herbal medicine has been used since at least the Paleolithic era, with written records from ancient Sumer, Egypt, Greece, China, and India documenting its development and application over millennia. Modern herbal medici ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
