archives@tulane.edu / 1 / Arielle Crook

Herbal medicines remain integral part of indigenous health care system in Ghana. Most conventional health medicines are directly or indirectly derived from plants or herbs. Despite its significant role in modern medicine indigenous herbal practices has been on the low light for some time due to perceived antagonistic relationship that exists between practitioners of herbal medicine and their counterpart in the conventional system. Using an indigenous knowledge discursive framework, the thesis examined the relevance of herbal medicine to the contemporary Ghanaian society. The thesis also examined the tension between the indigenous herbal practitioners and their orthodox counterparts. The thesis noted that for health care system in Ghana to be effective, there is a need for collaborate relations between these two practitioners. Also, it was noted that for health care system to be effective in Ghana, spirituality has to be central in the works of the herbal practitioners.

Herbal medicines remain integral part of indigenous health care system in Ghana. Most conventional health medicines are directly or indirectly derived from plants or herbs. Despite its significant role in modern medicine indigenous herbal practices has been on the low light for some time due to perceived antagonistic relationship that exists between practitioners of herbal medicine and their counterpart in the conventional system. Using an indigenous knowledge discursive framework, the thesis examined the relevance of herbal medicine to the contemporary Ghanaian society. The thesis also examined the tension between the indigenous herbal practitioners and their orthodox counterparts. The thesis noted that for health care system in Ghana to be effective, there is a need for collaborate relations between these two practitioners. Also, it was noted that for health care system to be effective in Ghana, spirituality has to be central in the works of the herbal practitioners.

L’herboristerie, activité consacrée à la préparation et à la vente de plantes médicinales, se renouvelle depuis les années 1970 autour d’acteurs aux pratiques techniques et approches scientifiques divergentes. Parmi eux, des paysans-herboristes cultivent, cueillent puis transforment eux-mêmes les espèces végétales qu’ils commercialisent tout en mobilisant les usages de la médecine végétale populaire transmis par l’ethnobotanique pour qualifier leurs qualités thérapeutiques. L’ethnobotanique est une discipline vouée à l’étude des relations flore-société investie notamment par des acteurs non-académiques qui travaillent sur le recueil des savoirs naturalistes populaires. La thèse met en lumière les ressorts de la relation que les paysans-herboristes tissent avec le végétal et la façon dont ils utilisent l’ethnobotanique pour asseoir la légitimité de leurs pratiques. En échangeant des savoirs sur les propriétés médicinales du végétal, il apparaît que les institutions de la recherche et du patrimoine d’une part, les paysans-herboristes et les ethnobotanistes d’autre part, participent à un processus de production collective de connaissances sur les plantes orienté vers le développement de l’autonomie thérapeutique. La thèse met également en évidence l’attention particulière des paysans-producteurs aux vulnérabilités humaines et végétales et la prise en compte de l’intentionnalité des plantes qui caractérise leur pratique de l’herboristerie. Les données de terrain ont été recueillies dans différents contextes entrelacés : les institutions patrimoniales et scientifiques, les arènes de l’herboristerie française et les fermes des paysans-herboristes. / Herbalism, or the activity of preparing and selling medicinal plants, has been going through a phase of renewal since the 1970’s, thanks to the actions of various participants whose technical practices and scientific approaches markedly differ. Among them, are the farmer-herbalists, who grow and pick medicinal plants, which they transform and commercialise, mobilising the traditions of popular plant medicine relayed by ethnobotany. Ethnobotany, a field of study which focuses on the relationships between plants and societies, is being invested by new players who, independently from academic institutions, work to collect popular naturalistic knowledge. This doctoral thesis proposes to shed light on the dynamics underlying the relationship that farmer-herbalists establish with the plant world, and on their use of ethnobotany as an argument to legitimise their practices. It appears that, through an exchange of knowledge about the medicinal properties of plants, institutions of research and conservation on the one hand, farmer-herbalists and ethnobotanists on the other hand, both contribute to the constitution of a collective body of knowledge on plants which promotes therapeutic autonomy. The thesis also emphasizes that the farmer-producers are particularly attentive to the vulnerabilities of both humans and plants, and that they take the plants’ intentionality into consideration – a defining characteristic of their herbalistic practices. The field data was collected in an array of varied, though intermingled, contexts: conservation and scientific institutions, the various arenas of French herbalism, and the farms of the farmer-herbalists.