Ethnomedicine and ethnobotany of fright, a Caribbean culture-bound psychiatric syndrome

BACKGROUND: "Fright" is an English-speaking Caribbean idiom for an illness, or ethnomedical syndrome, of persistent distress. A parallel ethnopsychiatric idiom exists in the French Antilles as sésisma. Fright is distinct from susto among Hispanics, though both develop in the wake of traumatic events. West Indian ethnophysiology (ethnoanatomy) theorizes that an overload of stressful emotions (fear, panic, anguish or worry) causes a cold humoral state in which blood coagulates causing prolonged distress and increased risks of other humorally cold illnesses. METHODS: Qualitative data on local explanatory models and treatment of fright were collected using participant-observation, informal key informant interviews and a village health survey. Ethnobotanical and epidemiological data come from freelist (or "free-list") tasks, analyzed for salience, with nearly all adults (N = 112) of an eastern village in Dominica, and a village survey on medicinal plant recognition and use (N = 106). RESULTS: Along with prayer and exercise, three herbs are salient fright treatments: Gossypium barbadense L., Lippia micromera Schauer, and, Plectranthus [Coleus] amboinicus [Loureiro] Sprengel. The survey indicated that 27% of village adults had medicated themselves for fright. Logistic regression of fright suffering onto demographic variables of age, education, gender, parental status and wealth measured in consumer goods found age to be the only significant predictor of having had fright. The probability of having (and medicating for) fright thus increases with every year. CONCLUSIONS: While sufferers are often uncomfortable recalling personal fright experiences, reporting use of medicinal plants is less problematic. Inquiry on fright medical ethnobotany (or phytotherapies) serves as a proxy measurement for fright occurrence. Cross-cultural and ethnopharmacology literature on the medicinal plants suggests probable efficacy in accord with Dominican ethnomedical notions of fright. Further, the cultural salience and beliefs about these medicines may give these medications extra psychoneuroimmune (i.e. mind-body) benefits, or placebo-like effects, for this stress-related folk illness

Why isn’t everyone using the thermotolerant vaccine? Preferences for Newcastle disease vaccines by chicken-owning households in Tanzania

This research article published by PLOS ONE, 2019Understanding preferences for veterinary vaccines in low and middle-income countries is important for increasing vaccination coverage against infectious diseases, especially when the consumer is responsible for choosing between similar vaccines. Over-the-counter sales of vaccines without a prescription gives decision-making power to consumers who may value vaccine traits differently from national or international experts and vaccine producers and distributers. We examine consumer preferences for La Sota and I-2 Newcastle disease vaccines in Tanzania to understand why two vaccines co-exist in the market when I-2 is considered technically superior because of its thermotolerance. Household survey and focus group results indicate consumers perceive both vaccines to be effective, use the two vaccines interchangeably when the preferred vaccine is unavailable, and base preferences more on administration style than thermotolerance. Considering the consumers’ perspectives provides a way to increase vaccination coverage by targeting users with a vaccine that fits their preferences

Ethnomedicines: Traditions of Medical Knowledge

This chapter introduces the range of traditional topics that have provided a framework for ethnomedical inquiry. International public health research particularly embraced Arthur Kleinman's ethnomedical principle of the "explanatory model". Across the world, people have different conceptions about the body that anthropologists refer to as body image. "Ethnophysiology" is the type of ethnomedical body image that refers specifically to cultural notions about body structure and function including perceptions of internal organs and their purpose and placement. Ethnopsychiatry is a translational field that examines cultural views on mental illness, and local practices surrounding mental illnesses. In order for individuals to be recognized as ill they must be considered abnormal in the home culture. Cosmopolitan or organic mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, may at first seem unaffected by culture. Medical pluralism exists in many lower‐income countries where traditional popular and folk medicine practiced alongside of biomedicine

Ethnobiology in One Health

The new One Health concept is, essentially, the ethnobiology of health, addressing the interrelation of human, animal and environmental health. Incited by 2003 outbreaks of animal-borne SARS and avian influenza, One Health’s multidisciplinary perspective complements growing international support for interdisciplinary research and health equity. One Health needs researchers able to integrate social and cultural factors into health-related life science questions.</p

Sidama Agro-Pastoralism and Ethnobiological Classification of its Primary Plant, Enset (Ensete ventricosum)

Enset is an essential plant for the Ethiopian Sidama system of agropastoralism. Sidama agropastoralism and the folk taxonomy of enset is presented here in ethnographic context. One of several societies of Ethiopia’s enset complex, the highland Sidama are among the most wholly reliant on enset and maintain more enset varieties in their gardens than other groups. Sidama agro-pastoral systems revolve around human-enset-cattle interaction: Sidama eat low-protein parts of enset; cattle eat high-protein parts of enset; Sidama get protein from dairy; Sidama fertilize enset with cattle manure. In the Sidama language, enset offers an example of Hunn’s generic elevation within the framework of Berlinian perceptual-taxonomic theory. Weesho (enset) may serve both as a folk generic taxon and a life-form taxon depending on the frame of reference. Such expansion allows for an intermediate taxa translating to “male” or “female” ensets, followed by generic and specific taxa for kinds or “breeds” of enset. Generic elevation offers descriptive magnification of nomenclature for enset, a most salient species among Sidama people.</p

Medical pluralism and livestock health: ethnomedical and biomedical veterinary knowledge among East African agropastoralists

Background: Human and animal health are deeply intertwined in livestock dependent areas. Livestock health contributes to food security and can influence human health through the transmission of zoonotic diseases. In low-income countries diagnosis and treatment of livestock diseases is often carried out by household members who draw upon both ethnoveterinary medicine (EVM) and contemporary veterinary biomedicine (VB). Expertise in these knowledge bases, along with their coexistence, informs treatment and thus ultimately impacts animal and human health. The aim of the current study was to determine how socio-cultural and ecological differences within and between two livestock-keeping populations, the Maasai of northern Tanzania and Koore of southwest Ethiopia, impact expertise in EVM and VB and coexistence of the two knowledge bases. Methods: An ethnoveterinary research project was conducted to examine dimensions of EVM and VB knowledge among the Maasai (N = 142 households) and the Koore (N = 100). Cultural consensus methods were used to quantify expertise and the level of agreement on EVM and VB knowledge. Ordinary least squares regression was used to model patterns of expertise and consensus across groups and to examine associations between knowledge and demographic/sociocultural attributes. Results: Maasai and Koore informants displayed high consensus on EVM but only the Koore displayed consensus on VB knowledge. EVM expertise in the Koore varied across gender, herd size, and level of VB expertise. EVM expertise was highest in the Maasai but was only associated with age. The only factor associated with VB expertise was EVM expertise in the Koore