Abstract
In Madagascar some development programs interested in local medical knowledge have been working simultaneously to enhance the life of people and conserve the natural habitat. A study of these practices casts a different light on their work. After presenting several misconceptions concerning traditional medicine, I discuss the use of local taboos by development organisations as a means for conserving natural environment. Secondly I examine attempts to plant medicinal garens to stem the loss of natural habitat, and finally, I discuss misunderstandings concerning the notion of development and the selective screening of therapeutic practices. I suggest in conclusion that programs should primarly be less concerned with assessing the immediate prcaticalities of the proposed action and more concerned with an understanding of the soical whole.
Highlights
For some time in Madagascar there has been a proliferation of projects aimed at developing and conserving “traditional medicine”
The concepts of illness and cure in traditional medicine are much wider, and the notion of purity and impurity associated with traditional therapeutic practices and places, including the collection of certain plants and rituals, must be taken into account
The status of traditional medicine as gasy is constructed in opposition to the vazaha world, and this must be understood, as must the special status of the act of planting
Summary
For some time in Madagascar there has been a proliferation of projects aimed at developing and conserving “traditional medicine”. The general approach is collaboration between traditional healers and established medicine This has emerged relatively recently in Madagascar deriving from theories propagated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and experience in West Africa. The degree is currently offered at master’s level and can be taken after qualification as a doctor of medicine Another type of development, linked with the first, is of particular interest and I will focus on it in this paper. Most similar organisations active today conform to this profile They adhere to roughly the same discourse on traditional medicine, and this leads to a misunderstanding between their proponents and local people. Prior to presenting the sustainable development operations themselves, I propose to clarify some misconceptions concerning “traditional medicine”
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