I recently returned from a lengthy trip to India and Japan. Both trips revolved around learning about traditional medicinal practices, although each trip had a different purpose to it. In India, I was participating in a faculty seminar offered through SIT on Public Health, Community, and Healthcare Systems in India. Traditional medicine was an integral …
Tag: what historians do
Turmeric By Any Other Name
The problem with turmeric is that I have a hard time pronouncing it. I'm one of those people whose vocabulary expanded through reading voraciously. There are many words that I know how to use and spell correctly, but their correct pronounciation continues to elude me. It doesn't matter how many times someone has corrected me …
Searching for Aster
Everyone said to start by exploring what already grows in my yard. I wanted to learn about the vibrant New England Aster. It was much more difficult than I anticipated. Could the methods of the historian help?
Culpeper is a Man, not a Spice
When I teach the history of medicine, I ask students to think about how everyday people — people much like themselves, but in more Puritanical garb — responded to symptoms such as runny noses, sore throats, sprained ankles, and relentless diarrhea. We turn to Nicholas Culpeper for the answers.
A-Wildcrafting We Will Go
Wildcrafting is the methodology of those who gather medicinal plants from the wild. Surprisingly, its basic tenets are not all that different from the methods and ethics of the historian.
