The Ethnobotany of Eden – Rethinking the Jungle Medicine Narrative - Hardcover

Voeks, Robert A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 022654771X ISBN 13: 9780226547718

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2018

Synopsis

In the mysterious and pristine forests of the tropics, a wealth of ethnobotanical panaceas and shamanic knowledge promises cures for everything from cancer and AIDS to the common cold. To access such miracles, we need only to discover and protect these medicinal treasures before they succumb to the corrosive forces of the modern world. A compelling biocultural story, certainly, and a popular perspective on the lands and peoples of equatorial latitudes--but true? Only in part. In The Ethnobotany of Eden, geographer Robert A. Voeks unravels the long lianas of history and occasional strands of truth that gave rise to this irresistible jungle medicine narrative. By exploring the interconnected worlds of anthropology, botany, and geography, Voeks shows that well-intentioned scientists and environmentalists originally crafted the jungle narrative with the primary goal of saving the world's tropical rainforests from destruction. It was a strategy deployed to address a pressing environmental problem, one that appeared at a propitious point in history just as the Western world was taking a more globalized view of environmental issues. And yet, although supported by science and its practitioners, the story was also underpinned by a persuasive mix of myth, sentimentality, and nostalgia for a long-lost tropical Eden. Resurrecting the fascinating history of plant prospecting in the tropics, from the colonial era to the present day, The Ethnobotany of Eden rewrites with modern science the degradation narrative we've built up around tropical forests, revealing the entangled origins of our fables of forest cures.

About this title

About the Author

Robert A. Voeks is professor in the Department of Geography and the Environment at California State University, Fullerton, and the editor of the journal Economic Botany. He is the author of Sacred Leaves of Candomble African Magic, Medicine, and Religion in Brazil and coeditor of African Ethnobotany in the Americas.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 022654771X
• ISBN 13: 9780226547718
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 328