 The failure of pharmaceuticals and the power of plants: medicinal discourse as a critique of modernity in the AmazonCoral Wayland Social Science & Medicine, 2004, vol. 58, issue 12, 2409-2419 Abstract: This paper examines how caregivers' medicinal discourse serves as an indirect critique of modernization, urbanization and development in the Brazilian Amazon. When caregivers in two peri-urban neighborhoods, Triunfo and Bairro da Luz, discuss medicinal plants they highlight the positive aspects of phytotherapy and associate it with traditional rural lifestyles. In contrast, they tend to emphasize the shortcomings of pharmaceuticals, which they link to modernity and urbanization. This discourse, which juxtaposes plants/tradition/positive with pharmaceuticals/modern/negative, contains counterhegemonic commentary about the failures of modernization, urbanization and development. While state sponsored development was supposed to bring prosperity to the Amazon, for many residents, like those in Bairro de Luz and Triunfo, it did not. In fact, some say development made their lives worse, claiming that poverty and poor health are among the prices they have paid. Due to the shortcomings of modernization and urbanization in other areas of their life, caregivers are ambivalent about biomedicine and the pharmaceuticals they associate with it. Moreover, because medicinal plant remedies embody traditional values, asserting they are stronger, more potent, better and more effective, especially in an urban context, is a moral commentary on the shortcomings of modernity. Finally, by insisting that traditional plant remedies are better at curing the health problems that result from modern, urban lifestyles, they are subtly asserting the superiority of tradition over modernity. Keywords: Medicinal; plants; Pharmaceuticals; Pharmaceutical; anthropology; Amazon; Brazil (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:58:y:2004:i:12:p:2409-2419 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier |
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