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Medicinal plants of the nekematigi of the eastern highlands of New Guinea

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Summary

The major difficulties in obtaining ethnomedical information from interior New Guinea arise from the improper preparation of specimens and inadequate botanical knowledge of this area rather than from problems in eliciting information from indigenes. Amongst Bena Bena speaking peoples, illnesses believed due to sorcery are treated by means of countermagic and by techniques for increasing the strength of the patient, including the ingestion and application of a variety of plant substances, recitation of verbal formulae, and venesection. Some plants are regarded as general restoratives while others are antidotes to specific forms of sorcery. Future field research in this area should combine the skills of botanists and anthropologists. Pharmacognostical and phytochemical analyses of specimens should be conducted and the results correlated with informants’ statements as to the rationale for their use.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois

    Adell Johannes

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  1. Adell Johannes
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Johannes, A. Medicinal plants of the nekematigi of the eastern highlands of New Guinea. Econ Bot 29, 268–277 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02873177

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02873177

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