Abstract

The majority of South African citizens experience inadequate healthcare due to underfunding, mismanagement, staff shortages, and infrastructure problems. Before a healthcare system was created, the sick turned to traditional herbal healers for care. South Africa’s Zulu healers possess specialized knowledge of local plants and medicine thought to have physical and spiritual healing properties. The country’s increasing reliance on Western biomedicine has created a current concern from indigenous medicine conservationists regarding the future of this kind of knowledge. In order to assess the effects of Western medicine on traditional healing practices, I collected data on the various uses of traditional medicine, the frequency in which it is used relative to Western medicine, and how it is maintained in the community. The data identified the various uses and potential problems of Western medicine and Zulu traditional herbal practice in helping the community. The traditional herbal healers revealed close connections between the informational, spiritual, physical, and cultural components of the practice that characterize its livelihood and practice for generations to come. This information allows for a greater understanding of how culture and medicinal knowledge can be entwined together and the positive or negative effects of biomedicine interacting with traditional medicine to help solve sicknesses in not only South Africa, but potentially in our global community.

Thesis Completion

2015

Semester

Fall

Advisor

Reyes-Foster, Beatriz

Degree

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Anthropology

Degree Program

Anthropology

Subjects

Dissertations, Academic -- Sciences; Sciences -- Dissertations, Academic

Format

PDF

Identifier

CFH0004892

Language

English

Access Status

Open Access

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Document Type

Honors in the Major Thesis

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Included in

Anthropology Commons

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