Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

herbal medicine” (WHM) or “traditional
“Western
herbalism” are terms used to distinguish
Western
based on Anglo-American traditional
herbalism
medicine from systems of herbal medicine
herbal
in the world, such as homeopathy,
elsewhere
or traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).
Ayurveda
the last 50 years, traditional Western herbalists
“Over
learned their craft in various settings. Some
have
have tried to formalize, professionalize and
teachers
their teaching, designing multiple-year
institutionalize
with clinical components. Other teachers
programmes
not taken this approach, choosing to stick with the
have
herbalist educators have created institutions
Some
by dominant forms of scientic knowledge,
recognizable
as reading biochemical assay studies of plant
such
Even so, those teachers still draw on
constituents.
of direct encounter with living plants and
practices
substances grounded in long histories.
medicinal
wow,’ she says under her breath, eyes wide. ‘That’s
‘Ooh,
intense.’ …
dropper circulates until everyone has taken a drop
The
two of the richly red infused alcohol, registering its
or
and sensations. The schisandra berries, too,
avors
each of us dipping our ngers in the bowl
circulate,
feel their hard, small, wrinkled round bodies. We
to
them, crack open a few to look inside, touch
smell
look carefully. When both have passed through
them,
hands, Sparrow pauses her discussion of
everyone’s
patterns, harvest times, and how to be careful of
growth
when buying commercially.
provenance
what are folks tasting?’ A question that grounds
‘So,
Materia Medica class, where students learn the
each
with which to speak about medicinal avors,
languages
well as taxonomy and medicinal uses of plants.
as
was REALLY intense to me, like packed with energy,’
‘It
adds. Sarah
great,’ says Sparrow, the teacher, turning from the
‘Yeah,
where she had written all these words. ‘What else?
board
don’t know,’ Ash says, ‘it tasted warming to me. But
‘I
dry.’
denitely
all mostly got it. It’s denitely drying, or “astringing”
‘You
traditional western terms, and sour, and somewhat
in
but not too much. And it’s got a kind of neutral
pungent
can be warming or cooling depending on the
energy—it
though it tends toward cooling because it’s
condition,
It’s also often stimulating for folks.’
sour.
add these collected observations to our Mat
Students
notes for schisandra. Tasting this plant’s extract
Med
them into a dierent kind of learning space where
brings
can connect the information they gather from
they
lecture and discussion to their direct experience,
the
dierent kinds of knowing together. As a cultural
ltering
I follow this attention to taste, touch,
anthropologist,
and sensation in order to examine the kinds of
smell,
that matter to herbalists, and that approach to
evidence
informs their approach to medical knowledge
evidence
the last 50 years in the United States, complementary
In
alternative medical practices have become very
and
We can take this as one indication that
successful.
people think there are alternatives to biomedicine,
many
it comes to thinking about and working on bodies
when
health. Herbalism, however, is not just ‘alternative’
and
biomedicine—contemporary herbalists develop
to
practices to work in conversation with it.
knowledge
at The Center where I conducted research
Teachers
the experience of a trained herbalists’ sensory
claim
as a form of knowledge that can provide evidence:
skills
plants’ medicinal qualities; for plant preparations’
for
composition, and capacity for ecacy; and
strength,
bodily states of wellness and illness. These claims
for
in contrast to biomedical ideals, which developed
are
tandem with the networks and institutions that
in
ingestible substances (food, pharmaceuticals,
regulate
which consider somatic or bodily
supplements),
unreliable evidence in part because
experiences
are not understood to be easily reproducible.
they
suggest that reproducibility is not possible
Herbalists
any case, because each body, plant, and ailment
in
distinct, albeit with some shared features. It is in
are
conversations about evidence, and the relation
these
bodily experience to legitimate knowledge, where
of
make their most meaningful contribution
herbalists
human health. Claims about experience, and the
to
of sensory experience, opened the way for what
training
Michelle Murphy might call an herbalist
anthropologist
otherwise,’ and it is that ‘otherwise’ I
‘technoscience
here (Murphy 2006). To say that one can know
trace
by tasting, growing, touching, nurturing them
plants
evidence and its production outside a statusquo
locates
paradigm for health. Direct experience as a mode of
III. Methods and tools
III. Methods and tools
“traditional” apprenticeship mode.
more generally.
‘It’s like, sweet but spicy,’ Angie says.
How about the energetics? Who felt it was cooling?’
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