Main description:

The tremendous increase in migrations and diasporas of human groups in the last decades are not only bringing along challenging issues for society, especially related to the economic and political management of multiculturalism and culturally effective health care, but they are also creating dramatic changes in traditional knowledge, believes and practices (KBP) related to (medicinal) plant use. The contributors to this volume - all internationally recognized scholars in the field of ethnobiology, transcultural pharmacy, and medical anthropology - analyze these dynamics of traditional knowledge in especially 12 selected case studies.

Ina Vandebroek, features in Nova's "Secret Life of Scientists", answering the question: just what is ethnobotany?

Contents:

List of Tables and Figures

Introduction

Chapter 1. Medicinal Plants and Cultural Variation across Dominican Rural, Urban, and Transnational Landscapes

Andreana L. Ososki, Michael J. Balick, and Douglas C. Daly

Chapter 2. Use of Medicinal Plants by Dominican Immigrants in New York City for the Treatment of Common Health Conditions: A Comparative Analysis with Literature Data from the Dominican Republic

Ina Vandebroek, Michael J. Balick, Jolene Yukes, Levenia Duran, Fredi Kronenberg, Christine Wade, Andreana L. Ososki, Linda Cushman, Rafael Lantigua, Miriam Mejia and Lionel Robineau

Chapter 3. Between Bellyaches and Lucky Charms: Revealing Latinos' Plant-Healing Knowledge and Practices in New York City

Anahi Viladrich

Chapter 4. The Changing Scene of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Strategies Due to Migration of Indians from the Asian Subcontinent to the United States

Usha R. Palaniswamy

Chapter 5. Use of Traditional Herbal Remedies by Thai Immigrant Women in Sweden

Pranee C. Lundberg

Chapter 6. Medicinal Plant Use by Surinamese Immigrants in Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Results of a Pilot Market Survey

Tinde van Andel and Charlotte van 't Klooster

Chapter 7. The Use of Home Remedies for Health Care and Well-Being by Spanish-Speaking Latino Immigrants in London: A Reflection on Acculturation

Melissa Ceuterick, Ina Vandebroek, Bren Torry and Andrea Pieroni

Chapter 8. Hackney's "Ethnic Economy" Revisited: Local Food Culture, Ethnic "Purity", and the Politico-Historical Articulation of Kurdish Identity

Sarah Keeler

Chapter 9. A Strange Drug in a Strange Land

Neil Carrier

Chapter 10. Traditional Health Care and Food and Medicinal Plant Use Among Historic Albanian Migrants and Italians in Lucania, Southern Italy

Cassandra L. Quave and Andrea Pieroni

Chapter 11. Plant Knowledge as Indicator of Historical Cultural Contacts: Tanning in the Atlantic Fringe

Ingvar Svanberg

Chapter 12. Procurement of Traditional Remedies and Transmission of Medicinal Knowledge among Sahrawi People Displaced in Southwestern Algerian Refugee Camps

Gabriele Volpato, Abdalahe Ahmadi Emhamed, Saleh Mohamed Lamin Saleh, Alessandro Broglia, and Sara di Lello

Notes on Contributors

Index