The enchantment of Western Herbal Medicine
Waddell, G. 2016. The enchantment of Western Herbal Medicine. PhD thesis University of Westminster The Faculty of Science and Technology
Waddell, G. 2016. The enchantment of Western Herbal Medicine. PhD thesis University of Westminster The Faculty of Science and Technology
Title | The enchantment of Western Herbal Medicine |
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Type | PhD thesis |
Authors | Waddell, G. |
Abstract | In the UK the profession of Western Herbal Medicine (WHM) has had to engage with politics and with science in order to survive. Social science work on WHM suggests that traditional knowledge is being overtaken by biomedical knowledge, with one paradigm replacing another, although collaboration with science is also seen as possible. Throughout this work the voices of herbalists themselves have rarely been presented. Drawing from a biographic narrative approach to interviewing, along with supporting ethnographic methods, thirteen cases of individual herbalists The thirteen cases suggest that, rather than a paradigmatic takeover of WHM by science, there is an enchantment of some herbalists by plants and medicines that includes both scientific and traditional approaches to practice. It is argued that the meeting and crossing of herbalists with The findings suggest that plants and herbal medicines may be seen as having more agency than has been previously considered. Drawing on a herbalist’s engagement with Ivan Illich it is asked whether herbs and herbalists may be seen as each other’s ‘convivial tools’. Beyond WHM, in the plant sciences, the agency of plants is being investigated in the controversial field of plant behaviour and plant neurobiology where the possibility of plant intelligence is raised. Within |
Keywords | Western Herbal Medicine; herbs; herbalists; enchantment; narrative; entryways; agency |
Year | 2016 |
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