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

斯坦福大学博士生Damien Droney将在Tanya Luhrmann博士的指导下，对科学实践的文化变异性进行研究。Droney将通过对西非国家加纳的科学草药进行民族志研究，解决关于科学在当代非洲社会和其他后殖民背景下的作用的社会科学研究匮乏的问题。科学草药，在加纳通常被称为“新草药主义”，是一种明确以科学研究为基础的草药实践形式。这项研究是在大学和研究中心进行的，但也是由没有任何正式从属关系的草药从业者进行的。因此，本研究描述了非西方和非制度背景下的科学实践的特征和文化政治。通过调查、参与者观察和对草药专业学生、研究人员和从业者的半结构化访谈，本研究将描述新草药主义的不同参与者如何定义和实践科学。通过编制来自大型研究机构和小型草药诊所的数据，该项目将介绍加纳草药文化和政治经济方面的具体科学研究，从而促进人类学对文化背景下的科学的理解。此外，作为一项关于将当地生产的草药纳入西非公共卫生系统的研究，该项目将通过审查科学研究在医疗提供中的地位，为日益增长的关于药品在公共卫生中的作用的人类学文献作出贡献。

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.