The Caribbean is host to one of the most diverse areas of the whole world - both culturally and ecologically. This book takes a look at some of the herbs and medicinal plants found in the Caribbean, a place awash with ancient herbal remedies for a number of common ailments. With advice on how to use them wisely, moderately and regularly, it also explores some of the myths and legends associated with these herbs and plants.
This pioneering work is multi-disciplinary in approach as it examines the rich folk medicine of Jamaica. Payne-Jackson and Alleyne analyse the historical and linguistic aspects of folk medicine, based on their research, which included extensive fieldwork and interviews. They explore the sociological and ethnological dimensions of common healing and health-preserving practices which rely on Jamaica's rich biodiversity in medicinal and nutritional flora. As is the case with other aspects of Jamaican traditional culture, Jamaican folk medicine is largely misunderstood and subject to negative pejorative attitudes. This comprehensively study challenges some of the myths and misinformation. Particular attention is paid to cultural transference from Africa and the use of herbs in African-Jamaican religions. The work has an appendix and a glossary as well as a detailed bibliography.
"Imagine if you could just drink a delicious cup of tea and banish your worst headaches. Or step into a sweetly scented bath and wash away skin eruptions and rashes. What if you could get rid of that nagging back pain once and for all--in just a matter of days? If this all sounds too good to be true, it's because it is ... for most people. Over the last 500 years, these amazing health benefits--and many others besides--have been a fact of life for Jamaica's Maroons. Hidden away for centuries--nearly forgotten--the Maroons are among the world's most skilled herbalists. But 'civilization' has finally reached their high mountain valleys ... and their culture and knowledge is disappearing. Now, Ivelyn Harris, the last living Maroon healer, has broken her silence. Afraid that her ancestors' healing knowledge may die with her, Ivey has decided to share her secrets. Secrets that made heart disease, diabetes, cancer and other devastating illnesses almost unknown among the Maroons. Remedies for everything from headaches to hemorrhoids to heart problems."--Publisher's description.
This book highlights the results from over a year of ethnobotanical research in a rural and an urban community in Jamaica, where we interviewed more than 100 people who use medicinal plants for healthcare. The goal of this research was to better understand patterns of medicinal plant knowledge, and to find out which plants are used in consensus by local people for a variety of illnesses. For this book, we selected 25 popular medicinal plant species mentioned during fieldwork. Through individual interviews, we were able to rank plants according to their frequency of mention, and categorized the medicinal uses for each species as “major” (mentioned by more than 20% of people in a community) or “minor” (mentioned by more than 5%, but less than 20% of people). Botanical identification of plant specimens collected in the wild allowed for cross-linking of common and scientific plant names. To supplement field research, we undertook a comprehensive search and review of the ethnobotanical and biomedical literature. Our book summarizes all this information in detail under specific sub-headings.
Traditional and Western Medicine: Voices from Jamaican Psychiatric Patients is for anyone interested in broadening their perspective on alternative treatment models, particularly the use of traditional methods alongside Western biomedical techniques. Caryl James Bateman critiques the tensions that exist between conventional approaches in psychiatric treatment and highlights how these may interfere with patients' views, especially those patients who have endemic beliefs in spiritual influences on health and traditional cures and rituals, often originating from African teachings. Through the stories of six former patients who, despite receiving Western biomedical treatment, conceptualize their illness using a traditional viewpoint, James Bateman empowers the patients to tell their own stories of their personal journeys and share their lived experiences of mental illness, giving the reader a rare first-hand account of what lies beyond the label of a psychiatric diagnosis.
King of the forest, carry mi seed, donkey peepee, stinking toe, ganja, leaf of life. These are the names of some of the 40 herbs documented in JA Herbs, all with proven medicinal and other uses. JA Herbs provides a fascinating insight into a small fraction of the hundreds of plant varieties that grow in Jamaica. Jamaica, an island more associated with tourism and music, has always had a strong tradition of herbal healing, and with increasing interest internationally in ethnobotany and complementary medicine, it is vital that there is research and development of the plant wealth of the island. There is every chance that you have consumed - or otherwise used a product - that has an extract of the annatto plant, which is one of the main sources of natural colourants in the food and cosmetic industries. Can you believe that a by-product of the shamy darling plant is being developed for use in solar technology? Welcome to the wonderful world of JA Herbs!
Jamaica has a high degree of biological and cultural diversity. Roughly, 3000 species of plants grow on the island, with 25 percent of them being found nowhere else on Earth. The Maroons of Jamaica represent one of the most important cultural groups. The history of the Maroons of Jamaica has African roots and begins in the year 1690, when a small number of slaves that had been brought from the Komoranti nation in Africa (the Akan region of West Africa or present day Ghana) fled from the hardships of plantation life and migrated to the mountains. Here they found freedom and a new autonomous way of life. Having established themselves in small communities, these forest freemen and women became known simply as Maroons, a title taken from the Spanish word cimaron, meaning wild or unruly.Today, two distinct Maroon groups persist in Jamaica, namely the Winward (eastern) and Leeward Maroons (western). Although, they have survived more than three centuries of colonization, today they continue to face new challenges - that of cultural erosion and integration into Jamaican society. Despite rapid change, a result of the exposure to non-Maroon society, Maroon communities have maintained many aspects of their traditional practices especially the use of local and introduced plants as medicines. Although, there has been no comprehensive study of Maroon ethnobotany, it is widely recognized that they possess a well developed traditional knowledge of the uses of Jamaica?s flora. This study presents some of this knowledge, and includes the common medicinal plants utilized by the Winward Maroons of Portland. This publication represents only a small fraction of the plants the Maroons use. It is hoped that this research can serve as an initial baseline for further documentation and Maroon cultural preservation.
A short account of the history of medicine leads on to Jamaican medical care in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In the twentieth century the demand for local autonomy increased steadily. When the University College of the West Indies opened, the local practitioners welcomed it enthusiastically. This account ends as the University became autonomous in 1962.
It is often thought that slaveholders only began to show an interest in female slaves' reproductive health after the British government banned the importation of Africans into its West Indian colonies in 1807. However, as Sasha Turner shows in this illuminating study, for almost thirty years before the slave trade ended, Jamaican slaveholders and doctors adjusted slave women's labor, discipline, and health care to increase birth rates and ensure that infants lived to become adult workers. Although slaves' interests in healthy pregnancies and babies aligned with those of their masters, enslaved mothers, healers, family, and community members distrusted their owners' medicine and benevolence. Turner contends that the social bonds and cultural practices created around reproductive health care and childbirth challenged the economic purposes slaveholders gave to birthing and raising children. Through powerful stories that place the reader on the ground in plantation-era Jamaica, Contested Bodies reveals enslaved women's contrasting ideas about maternity and raising children, which put them at odds not only with their owners but sometimes with abolitionists and enslaved men. Turner argues that, as the source of new labor, these women created rituals, customs, and relationships around pregnancy, childbirth, and childrearing that enabled them at times to dictate the nature and pace of their work as well as their value. Drawing on a wide range of sources—including plantation records, abolitionist treatises, legislative documents, slave narratives, runaway advertisements, proslavery literature, and planter correspondence—Contested Bodies yields a fresh account of how the end of the slave trade changed the bodily experiences of those still enslaved in Jamaica.
The global popularity of herbal supplements and the promise they hold in treating various disease states has caused an unprecedented interest in understanding the molecular basis of the biological activity of traditional remedies. Herbal Medicine: Biomolecular and Clinical Aspects focuses on presenting current scientific evidence of biomolecular ef
