Nina L. Etkin PhD
Nina L. Etkin, PhD, Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Hawaii
THIS IMPORTANT VOLUME showcases the convergence of medicinal and culinary practices. Scholars as well as popular consumers of food knowledge will be nourished by the insights they gain from this book. Its publication coincides with a growing interest in the West regarding the healthful qualities of foods, among both the scientific and lay communities. The research findings of the contributors represent various disciplinary perspectives and illustrate the rich diversity of cultural constructions and social negotiations of foods and medicines in traditional populations from all continents. Several contributors cast their work in the frame of ethnopharmacology by linking medical ethnography to the biology of therapeutic action. Others emphasize the importance of wild food sin traditional pharmacopoeias and diets, and link the erosion of that knowledge to problems of diminished biodiversity in the modern era. A minor but important theme illustrates the gendered nature of botanical knowledge as reflected in asymmetrical use patterns of certain plants. Issues of globalization are apparent as well in discussions of sourcing for the contemporary, primarily Western, nutraceutical and herbal products industry.
Timothy Johns PhD
Timothy Johns, PhD, Professor of Human Nutrition, McGill University
In drawing on current research and methodologies at the interface between the biological and social sciences, THE AUTHORS OFFER EXCITING NEW INSIGHTS into an under-explored theme in the ethnobotanical literature, and provide a timely focus of theoretical and practical importance linking human health the conservation and use of biodiversity. The fact that traditional systems, once lost, are hard to recreate underlines the imperative for the kind of documentation, compilation, and dissemination of eroding knowledge of biocultural diversity represented by this book.
