Orthodoxy, and other so-called world religions that were complicit with colonialist expansion and its repression of the “other peoples” (indigenous), their rites and beliefs. For centuries, colonial societies have denied that indigenous peoples had “religions” at all; as the great photographer of Native North American cultures Edward S. Curtis stated, “There seems to be a broadly prevalent idea...

A tradition is a behavioral practice that is shared among members of a group; is performed repeatedly over a period of time (that is, it is enduring); and depends to a measurable degree on social contributions to individual learning for its appearance in new practitioners (for elaboration see Fragaszy and Perry7). I will consider the implications of this definition for how we can identify tradi...

Herbal therapies have become an integral part of the American health care scene. Since 1991, public use of herbal products has increased quite markedly, with over $5 billion spent annually. This does not include the many (up to 25%) pharmaceutical products used in conventional practice that originally were, and in some cases still are, derived from plants (Table 69.1). The perennial appeal of h...