Doctoral Dissertation Research: Research, Markets, and Herbal Medicine in Ghana

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Stanford University doctoral student Damien Droney, under the guidance of Dr. Tanya Luhrmann, will conduct research on the cultural variability of scientific practice. Droney will address the paucity of social science research on the role of science in contemporary African societies and other post-colonial contexts by conducting an ethnography of scientific herbal medicine in the West African nation of Ghana. Scientific herbal medicine, often referred to in Ghana as "neoherbalism," is a form of herbal medicine practice explicitly based on scientific research. This research is conducted at universities and research centers, but it is also done by herbal medicine practitioners without any such formal affiliation. This study therefore describes the features and cultural politics of scientific practice in a non-Western and non-institutional context. Through surveys, participant-observation, and semi-structured interviews with herbal medicine students, researchers, and practitioners, this study will describe how different participants in neoherbalism define and practice science. By producing data from large research institutions as well as small herbal medicine clinics, this project will provide a description of scientific research specific to the culture and political economy of Ghanaian herbal medicine, thus furthering the anthropological understanding of science in its cultural context. Furthermore, as a study of the inclusion of locally manufactured herbal medicine in West African public health systems, this project will contribute to the growing anthropological literature on the role of pharmaceuticals in public health by examining the place of scientific research in medical provision.