Bioprospecting the African Renaissance
The new value of muthi in South Africa
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4719601 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Hanspeter Reihling (0000-0002-4919-6900, corresponding author), Hanspeter Cw Reihling |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 9-0 |
| Publication date | 2008-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1746-4269 • E-ISSN: 1746-4269 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1186/1746-4269-4-9 |
| PMID | 18371221 |
| PMCID | PMC2322955 |
| OpenAlex | W2049272329 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 42 |
This article gives an overview of anthropological research on bioprospecting in general and of available literature related to bioprospecting particularly in South Africa. It points out how new insights on value regimes concerning plant-based medicines may be gained through further research and is meant to contribute to a critical discussion about the ethics of Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS). In South Africa, traditional healers, plant gatherers, petty traders, researchers and private investors are assembled around the issues of standardization and commercialization of knowledge about plants. This coincides with a nation-building project which promotes the revitalization of local knowledge within the so called African Renaissance. A social science analysis of the transformation of so called Traditional Medicine (TM) may shed light onto this renaissance by tracing social arenas in which different regimes of value are brought into conflict. When medicinal plants turn into assets in a national and global economy, they seem to be manipulated and transformed in relation to their capacity to promote health, their market value, and their potential to construct new ethics of development. In this context, the translation of socially and culturally situated local knowledge about muthi into global pharmaceuticals creates new forms of agency as well as new power differentials between the different actors involved
African Renaissance · Bioprospecting · Traditional knowledge · Value (mathematics · African cultural and philosophical studies · Biotechnology and Related Fields
Madumo, a Man Bewitched
The Life of the Law
Pharmaceutical Reason
Witchcraft, Violence, and Democracy in South Africa
Modernity at large
French DNA
Patients and Healers in the Context of Culture
Reassembling the Social
Masons, Tricksters and Cartographers
The social construction of reality
The Cultural Life of Intellectual Properties
Medical pluralism in world perspective [1]
Between the sacred and the secular
Stem Cells, Tissue Cultures and the Production of Biovalue
Use of indigenous and indigenised medicines to enhance personal well-being
Making PCR
The Manufacture of Knowledge
Muthi, Medicine and Witchcraft
Benefit Sharing for All
Bioprospecting the Public Domain
Negotiating Local Knowledge
Subjects of Speculation
Mapping biocapital
The Anthropology of Pharmaceuticals
Negotiating local knowledge
Politics, Culture, and Governance in the Development of Prior Informed Consent in Indigenous Communities
Indigenous People Incorporated
The Return of the Native
Maya Medicine in the Biological Gaze
An Anthropology of Knowledge
Can Culture Be Copyrighted
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,35 |
| Citation span | 2009 - 2026 (18) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |