Abstract
Herbal medicine is growing in popularity in the US and currently the number of visits to Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) providers outnumbers the number of visits to primary care physicians (Bussmann 2010). Herbal medicine is one type of alternative medicine used by trained professionals, known as herbalists and healers. Herbal medicine is effective when used properly because herbs contain organic chemicals with healing properties used to treat illness and disease throughout the entire body. Even with proven results of effective healing, herbal remedies are not classified as prescription drugs, but as dietary substances (Bent et al. 2004). In this comparative study, I examined herbalism as found in the alternative healing systems of Chinese medicine and Native American medicine. A local Chinese herbalist and a Native American healer were interviewed to analyze their healing beliefs in reference to diagnosing and treating patients with herbal medicine. I also analyzed how the beliefs and practices tied to herbal medicine differ from the culturally defined western model of healing. To deepen my analysis, I compared the local alternative medicine systems of Chinese medicine and Native American medicine to other alternative medicine traditions, specifically those of the Cherokee and Lakota, while also looking at consistencies within Native American medicine. The theoretical approach of ethno medicine was used to analyze the different approaches of herbal use among the complementary and alternative medicine healing systems of Chinese medicine and Native American medicine. To better interpret, I also applied Du Mont’s (1980) theory of holism to examine how these alternative systems of healing view the relationship between the whole person and its parts, and how their systems of healing include treating the whole in order to treat the affected parts. My research is significant because it can directly influence the way we view our own medical beliefs and practices by drawing our attention to the possible alternatives of a more preventative, less invasive, and less costly system of healing through herbal medicines.