Preservation, Maintenance, and Integration
Visiting a local clinic in Copa Grande (photo by Jack Lazar)
Here I would like to expand on the real-world importance of traditional medicine. Legitimatizing the option of using knowledge and practices of indigenous cultures has many benefits, not only in health, but also in keeping alive cultural traditions that are inherent to cultural identity.
Click on the title to go to each page:
Importance Today
Current Threats
Case Study in Integration: Maternal Health Care
Click on the title to go to each page:
Importance Today
Current Threats
Case Study in Integration: Maternal Health Care
Something to Consider
A group of indigenous healers (health-ageing.blogspot.com)
"In our endeavor to discover new medicines from the diverse life around us, we enter the next millennium with significant advances, but also significant challenges. At this moment, when we have never been better poised technologically to evaluate natural products, the plant species themselves are disappearing. Similarly, ease of air travel, better linguistic sophistication on the part of investigators (an increasing number of whom are citizens of developing countries), and renewed respect for the intellectual property rights and dignity of indigenous peoples have positioned ethnobotany for significant advances as never before. College courses and international conferences in ethnobotany are multiplying throughout the world, yet at this crescendo of enthusiasm, an increasing number of aged healers are dying, with their knowledge left unrecorded" (12, p. 4).
How should traditional medicine factor into global health in the future? Should we emphasize its preservation or make our priorities more focused on upholding the Millennium Development Goals? What is the difference between preservation for preservation's sake and preservation for the best for health? What is the best way to approach helping populations while also maintaining a legitimacy and importance for their traditions?
I do not have the answers to these questions, but I hope that I can provide some food for thought on the subject and raise some important points about the issue. We obviously want to provide the best health for everyone we can, but how?
I do not have the answers to these questions, but I hope that I can provide some food for thought on the subject and raise some important points about the issue. We obviously want to provide the best health for everyone we can, but how?