By Robert Bartholomew
In the past ten years there has been an explosion of interest in indigenous knowledge. The United States, Canada, Australia and South Africa were at the top of the movement to integrate old wisdom into modern science and decision -making by using it from public health to climate change. The appeal is both understandable and tempting. For thousands of years, indigenous cultures have accumulated a huge expenditure of information that helped them to adapt and survive. Before European contact, the Quechua used the Andes Chinine from the bark of the Cinchona tree to treat fever. It later proved to be the first effective treatment for malaria. Salicin from the Weidenbaum was used by tribes in America to treat pain, fever and inflammation and led to the development of aspirin. The active ingredient in Snakeroot, Reserpin, has been used by native peoples in India to treat high blood pressure for centuries and adopted by Western doctors as early treatment of high blood pressure. From star navigation to sophisticated construction techniques, agricultural innovations and hunting strategies, local knowledge has made significant contributions to human progress.
Romantize traditional knowledge
While these successes earn respect, many practices that have been promoted under the banner of indigenous knowledge are missing and should be treated with caution. In Australia, attempts to involve the Aboriginal practice of “spiritual healing” into the health system were met with alarm, as this believes in magic and supernatural intrusions rather than biological active ingredients. In the United States, alternative treatments include plant herbal agents, spiritual ceremonies and welding huts. The use of these uncomfortable therapies derives valuable resources from evidence -based medicine and can legitimize ineffective alternatives. In some cases, cancer patients have refused the proven treatments for traditional remedies.
This trend also extends to the romance of ancient European knowledge. Just because a practice has been followed for centuries, it does not automatically increase it to the status of “old wisdom”. In Europe, bloodshed has been traced back to Europe since the Middle Ages until the 1850s – and may have accelerated George Washington’s death, which had removed an estimated 40 percent of his blood before his death. As the historian William Stahl presents: “The writings of the old … were valued and preserved as golden sayings. Our own budget books, which are so popular in the last century, contained page according to Page with worthless remedies from … Dioscorides, Galen, Pliny and … Apuleius.” There is a long history of once worshiped European beliefs that have not existed scientific patterns from astrology and alchemy. While each of these practices once thought as legitimate knowledge, it finally collapsed under the weight of the scientific examination.
The rise of indigenous pseudosciences
Nowhere has the trend to use indigenous knowledge of the mainstream institutions than in New Zealand, where the government has given the same status with science in the school qualification system. This survey has led to many magnificent claims about the power of the Māori moon calendar to influence everything from human health and well-being to horticulture and the weather. In 2023, the Māori politician Hana Maipi-Clarke claimed that the calendar could be used to predict floods. There is no evidence for this claim. Many factors influence the precipitation: air and water temperature, atmospheric pressure, cloud formation, wind, humidity, jet stream and the burning of fossil fuels. The moon is not one of them. Another popular claim is that a full moon can influence plant growth by pulling moisture up in the ground to nourish seedlings. The gravitational train of the moon on soil moisture is negligible.
Just last year, the government prepared $ 400,000 of $ 400,000 to investigate whether the moon phases influence pregnancy activities, although studies consistently showed no correlation between the moon phases with birth and health results. Such projects distract important resources from the evidence -based maternal care. The relevant factors for the birth results are biological, genetic and medically, not the growing and losing weight of the moon. One of the long -term claims was made by psychiatrist Dr. Hinemoa Elder driven. She wrote a popular book in which she claims that the Māwharu phase of the Māori moon calendar is associated with an improved female sexual libido. Further references are reports on patients who put their medication against bipolar disorders to use moon phases instead to regulate their mood.
There are even reports about public school teachers who use the calendar to keep their lessons and adapt them to synchronize them with the moon phases. Some refuse to hand over exams with high energy during the phases, as they believe that the students are missing and are susceptible to bad behavior. A teacher told a reporter for the country’s largest educational union: “If it is a day with low energy, I may not be tested this week. We will do meditation, mirimiri [massage]. I slowly build up your learning and we know that the children will be energetic. “Some government officials even provided meetings on days that are triggered as less likely conflicts.
Separate the science of superstition
Indigenous traditions deserve respect, but they have to be kept the same strict standard as other bodies of knowledge. Some “old wisdom” have proven to be really valuable, while other claims have no scientific basis or are subjected to strict tests. In order for science to survive the cultural wars, scientists must be willing to evaluate indigenous knowledge without dismissing it uncritically or accepting their correctness uncritically, but properly assessing merit, regardless of cultural importance.
References
Henry, Oakeley (2023). Modern drugs from plants: botanical stories of some of the most important drugs in modern medicine. London: CRC Press.
Schwarcz, Joseph (April 5, 2024). “Sordid Medicine shows exploited indigenous remedies that are used by the long history of indigenous peoples to use plants to treat symptoms.” McGill University, Montreal, Canada, Office for Science and Society, accessed at: https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/Medical-History/sordid-medicine-shows-explotoited-indiges?utm_source=chatgpt.com.
Singh, Indian (1955). “Reserpin in high blood pressure.” The British Medical Journal 1, No. 4917 (1955): 813-17.
Burank, Victoria (2017). The embodiment of magic: supernatural aggression, belief and envy in a remote Aboriginal community. The Australian Journal of Anthropology 28: 286-300; Maher, Patrick (1999). “An overview of” traditional “health beliefs by Aborigines.” The Australian Journal of Rural Health 7 (4): 229-236 (November).
Gall, Alana et al. (2018). “Traditional and complementary medical consumption for indigenous cancer patients in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States: a systematic review.” Integrative cancer therapies 17 (3): 568-581.
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Stahl, William H. (1937). “Moon madness.” Annals of Medical History 9 (3): 248-263. See p. 263.
“Change 2-equal status for Māori training in NCEA, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, 2025, Access Access.govt at Httsura, 2025, Access Access-Status-Meadatus-Mestbar
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“Instructions from Hine Te Iwaiwa: Research into Maramata’s influence on the pregnancy results.” The Health Research Council of New Zealand, summary of the research scholarship
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Elder, Hinemoa (2022). Wawata Moon Dreaming: daily wisdom, led by Hina, the Māori moon. Auckland, New Zealand: Penguin Random House, pp. 78 and 129.
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This article was originally published by Realclearscience and provided via Realclearwire.
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