Maria G. Mandourari

Historical introduction of Africanmagico-medical systems

Social and economic factors thatfacilitated their survival

Role of plant geography in theirpersistence

Questions of:i. Origin

ii. Ethnomedical typology

iii. Religion

iv. Syncretism

v. Magic and power

vi. Collective medicinal plant knowledge

i. Old World and New Worlddiseases

ii. Ethnomedical systems

iii. Plant-based pharmacopoeias

There were two worlds

The growing

European population

African slaves

European population

Colonial physicians

medical care then known to EuropeBarbers, surgeons, bleeders, and priests

the needs of the growing European population

African slaves

Neglect by slave owners

the excessive cost of physician services and

pharmaceuticals

tend to their own medical problems

African priests, herbalists, and magicians

African-based medicine, magic, and their associated

plant pharmacopoeias

ARRIVAL & SURVIVAL

1. Demographics of the slave trade

2. Cultural diffusion from Africa to theAmerica

3. The religious division betweenProtestantism and Roman Catholicism

Demographics of the slave trade

where

to what degree

African magico-medical systems diffused into the New World

Heavy andextended volumeand duration ofslavery African-basedethnomedicinepredominates.

Brazil: retainsAfrican religiousand medicalsystems.

Old Spanish Mainexhibits magico-religious systemsscarcely differentfrom those in Africa

North

America:

minor survival

of their

ethnomedical

systems

Cultural diffusion from Africa to the Americas

Benign paternalism sadism

Brutal conditions high mortality

constant demand for fresh captives

(priests, magicians, and herbalists)

1. Social hierarchy, shaman class

2.Reinforced the collective knowledge of African

ethnomedicine among the resident black population

The religious division between Protestantism in British North

America and Roman Catholicism in Latin America

Protestants:

a). Simpler ritual

conflicted with the

complexities of African

religion

b). African rituals and

deities was not shared by

the Protestant sects.

Policy of non-tolerance

Roman Catholics:

a). Liturgy: some

structural similarities

with African religions

b). Implicit policy of

tolerance toward pagan

rituals and deities

Healing

Magic

Religion

cornerstones of African

ethnomedicine persisted

to a greater or lesser

degree throughout the

New World.

ETHNOMEDICINE & RELIGION

Ethnomedical traditions varied over timeAfrican-American healing traditions. These

include theories of:• causation related to the spiritual realm• the capacity to identify symptomsassociated with specific diseases,• the ability to prescribe culturally acceptabletreatmentsIllness, it is believed, is a reaction to forcesoutside the realm of secular comprehension.

Shaman healers: brokers between the materialand spiritual universes

Patients increase their own vulnerability tohealth problems:

• straying from the cosmic equilibrium imposedby the spirit realm

•inadvertent victims of direct intervention bydead ancestors

•manipulation of the spirit realm by magiciansand sorcerers

No one, regardless of how ritually pure, isimmune to the power of sorcery.

Diagnosis:

Divination

Ceremony

Ritual stored in the collective memory

Cures:

Votive offerings to the ancestors and spirits

Observance of taboos

Fasting and seclusion

Trance

Prescription of medicinal plant

African cosmology and ethnomedical system came to predominate.

Attractive alternative to a European social order to which slaves and their descendants had little or no access.

Today: Yoruba & Dahomey

Batuque of southern Brazil; Candomble, Shango & Tambor das Minas of north-

eastern Brazil Shango of Trinidad Vodoun of HaitiSanteria of Cuba

African Christian Religions

existence of an afterlife

Christianity: emphasizes the topic

African religions: limited connection between this- world action with after-world response

AFRICAN-AMERICAN PLANT PHARMACOPOEIA

African ethnomedicine: healing power ofthe vegetal realm.

Healing rituals and ceremonies involve:

• Leaves

• roots

• bark

• plant reproductive structures

• New World: alien floristic landscape

Learning the medicinal qualities of thelocal flora from native herbalists

Trial and error

Newly arrived shamans continued toemploy the species as they had donein Africa

Transmission of plant knowledgebetween African and Indian slaves

Many exotic plants were purposelytransplanted to the Americas, butmost probably arrived as weeds

Duration of the slave trade affected thetransmission of plants and plantknowledge to New World Africans:

Americas: growth of their exotic flora

African healers: incorporated speciesinto their corpus of medicinal herbs

Plants introduced by Europeans to theAmericas recognized by African healersas native pharmacopoeia

Medicinal use of some native Americanspecies, after being naturalized inAfrica, diffused to the New World

Many important native African species failed toinvade the New World:

lack of seed dispersal

rigors of interspecific competition

substitution of similar species facilitated bythe bio-geographical similarity of the Africanand American tropics

Africans and Indians in the Americas

Africans made contact with NativeAmericans from the beginning of theSpanish conquest

Indians and Africans: mutual enslavement

Highly imbalanced sex ratio amongAfricans and Indians

Class differentiation whitewashed cross-cultural alliances

Shared experiences: African-NativeAmerican interaction

Imperial exploitation: pushed groupsinto alliances

Colonial New Mexico: exploitation canfoster linkages between marginalizedgroups

MAGICO-MEDICINE IN THE CONTEMPORARY LANDSCAPE

African-based ethnomedical systems and their associatedplant pharmacopoeias, have changed gradually over time

Scarcely recognisable as African in origin

Plant-based magic and medicine have expanded to includeEuropean, Asian, and American materia medica

African-American magic and medicine are widely perceivedas rejected knowledge:

ignorance and poverty of the lower classes

little or no meaning in a world dominated by the principlesof Western science

African-based healing systems have expanded theirgeographical range significantly

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