Weedy science : the cultural politics of herbal medicine science in Ghana
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Weedy Science: The Cultural Politics of Herbal Medicine Science in Ghana examines the vocation of science in postcolonial Africa through an ethnographic study of herbal medicine research in Ghana. Weedy Science is based on twenty months of ethnographic research comprising over fifty interviews, two surveys, archival research, and over 1,000 hours of participant observation across three primary field sites in Ghana. The dissertation identifies four groups of people, each of whom had a different understanding of what it meant to be a scientist: For independence era scientists, science promised a method of decolonization and modernization; For university students, science marks the achievement of a cosmopolitan professional identity; For entrepreneurial herbalists, science offers professionalism and legitimacy; For laboratory researchers, the current state of science represents the disappointments of postcolonial Ghana. However, all of them expressly described themselves as practicing a crude, embarrassingly local, or inadequately modern form of science. Ghanaian herbal medicine researchers of all class and educational backgrounds worry that they fall short of the expected ideals of science. This situation is explained through a historical analysis of herbal medicine science in Ghana since the colonial period. The twentieth century saw the rise of a form of science expressly intended to symbolize progress, where the building of scientific institutions, the training of African scientists, and the practice of scientific research were representative of the promises of African modernity. However, while scientific research in Africa was one held as a symbol of a coming world of political, economic, and intellectual equality, today it is seen as ironically emblematic of the secondary status of Africa. Weedy Science describes the sensibilities and cultural strategies that emerge in response to this situation. The dissertation describes the vocation of science outside of Europe and North America, the classic sites in the canon of social studies of science. In doing so, it argues that science, technology, and medicine are imbued with the capacity to represent "modernity" and "progress" on a global scale, and provides a thick description of life lived in this symbolic position.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2015 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Droney, Damien |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Anthropology. |
| Primary advisor | Luhrmann, T. M. (Tanya M.), 1959- |
| Thesis advisor | Luhrmann, T. M. (Tanya M.), 1959- |
| Thesis advisor | Ferguson, James |
| Thesis advisor | Jain, Sarah S. Lochlann, 1967- |
| Thesis advisor | Kohrman, Matthew, 1964- |
| Advisor | Ferguson, James |
| Advisor | Jain, Sarah S. Lochlann, 1967- |
| Advisor | Kohrman, Matthew, 1964- |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Damien Droney. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Anthropology. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2015. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2015 by Damien Patrick Droney
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