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https://repositorio.inpa.gov.br/handle/1/18914
Title: | A sensory ecology of medicinal plant therapy in two Amazonian societies |
Authors: | Shepard, Glenn Harvey |
Issue Date: | 2004 |
metadata.dc.publisher.journal: | American Anthropologist |
metadata.dc.relation.ispartof: | Volume 106, Número 2, Pags. 252-266 |
Abstract: | Sensory anthropology has explored sensation as a fruitful but poorly examined domain of cross-cultural research. Curiously, sensory anthropologists have mostly ignored scientific research into sensation, even that which addresses cross-cultural variation. A comparative study in two Amazonian societies (Matsigenka, Yora [Nahua]) documented the role of the senses in medicinal plant therapy and benefited greatly from theoretical insights gleaned from sensory science. The study reveals a complex interweaving of cultural and ecological factors in medicinal plant selection, with sensation standing at the culture-nature nexus linking medical ideas with medical materials. By synthesizing (rather than antagonizing) scientific and anthropological insights, sensation can be understood as a biocultural phenomenon rooted in human physiology yet constructed through individual experience and culture. Overcoming the limitations of a narrowly defined sensory anthropology, sensory ecology is here proposed as a new theoretical perspective for addressing human-environment interactions mediated by the senses. |
Appears in Collections: | Artigos |
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