Dissertation Research: Cultural and Biological Significance of Indigenous Ethnomedicine in Kalimantan, Indonesia

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This project involves the dissertation research of an anthropology student from the University of Hawaii. The student will investigate the nature of the ethnomedical and ethnobotanical knowledge of a traditional community in Kalimantan, Indonesia. Combining methods from cultural and biological anthropology and natural science, the student will conduct structured and unstructured interviews with local indigenous people, collect voucher specimens of medicinal plants, and do phytochemical analysis of the plants. A major hypothesis to be tested is that plants with strong chemosensory properties (bright color, bitter flavor, pungent aroma) will be symbolically interpreted and favored for medicines. The results will be an in-depth picture of the indigenous system for using natural forest projects in healing, and will serve as a valuable case study of a form of knowledge that is in danger of disappearing along with its tropical forest habitat. The advance in our knowledge will be useful to local planners in designing culturally appropriate health services, and will be an additional case available to improve our general understanding of how to deliver biomedical health services to traditional peoples with different understandings of health causality and treatment. Finally, there is always the possibility that a study such as this will discover a new and valuable drug treatment for disease.