| Following a short review of the role traditional knowledge, beliefs and practices concerning medicinal plants and herbs from the newly discovered worlds have played in the past, in the formative period of botany and pharmacology in the West, the implications are indicated of the emergence of Cartesian rationalism in science, in particular in the medical social sciences. Then, the recent reassessment of the human dimension in human–plant relations is described in terms of the ‘rediscovery’ of herbal medicine, the integration of traditional medicine in primary health care, and the growing interest in many Western countries in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Despite the rather solid position of biomedicine, based on advanced drugs,... |
