Traditional Medicine of the Marshall Islands: The Women, the Plants, the Treatments (review)

This repertoire of Marshallese healing knowledge has been compiled from the work of nine expert women healers and fifty-eight other contributors who met in two workshops and weekly sessions over a four-year period in Majuro. These women recalled (many orally) their practices and recipes for healing, while others drew on documentation they had recorded for themselves. Twenty-three participants filled in questionnaires about the twenty-five plants they considered most valuable in Marshallese medicine (appendix 1). Extracts from their records of plants used in different healing practices are acknowledged throughout the text by each woman's initials. These extracts have been compiled together with plant information by Irene Taafaki of USP Centre, Majuro; Maria Kabua Fowler, a Marshallese contributor; and Randolph Thaman, biogeographer of the University of the South Pacific.

This book is intended as an aid in the training of healers today, as well as a repository of knowledge that is in danger of being lost. In the introduction, Kabua Fowler and Taafaki state that "medicinal expertise is carefully guarded, preserved, developed and passed on within the [Marshallese] clan and family" (3). Former reluctance to share this knowledge with outsiders has been set aside in the interests of future generations. Discussion of this process of bringing "medicinal knowledge into the public domain" (236), ethical issues, and the means of handling Marshallese taboos and customary rules would enhance our understanding of researching Marshallese traditional medicine (appendix 1).

Traditional Marshallese medicine is presented in chapter 5 by means of an alphabetical list of fifty-six plants, each listed under its Marshallese name, its Latin family and species name, as well as its English name. Each entry is illustrated with a photograph and includes a biogeographic description, followed by explanations by one or more healers about how the different parts of the plant are processed and applied to a patient. Each plant entry is subdivided by the category of users, whether general, women, children, or infants, with a few for men. This chapter comprises 60 percent of the book's pages (71–234).

Of the four other chapters, the introduction provides a background to training traditional medicine practitioners, with a second chapter (by Fowler and Taafaki) that summarizes women's roles, attributes, and health. Chapter 3 (by Petrosian Husa) collates excerpts on traditional medicine translated from German ethnographies by Erdland and Kramer of the 1910 German Südsee expedition. A fourth chapter (by Thaman) sets out geographic habitats where the plants are found on Majuro Atoll. Six appendixes provide information on research methods, and lists of ecosystems, vascular plants, and indigenous and introduced species for Majuro Atoll, an urban center in the Marshall Islands.

The approach to traditional Marshallese medicine through plant ecosystems downplays the detailed knowledge contributed by the women healers. Many aspects such as Marshallese categories of healing, differences between urban practices and those still used on outer islands, and the integration of traditional medicine with western medicine all warrant greater elaboration.

Since the acknowledged focus is on women's knowledge, men's knowledge is missing. Issues of women's reproductive health, such as excessive bleeding, are of great concern to the women today, but are not discussed in this volume. A generalized case study would provide useful insights into tracing the practices and medications administered at crucial stages during pregnancy and postpartum. It would provide important guidelines not only for the next generation of traditional healers, but also for hospital staff in Majuro and Ebeye. The drawbacks of the Health Ministry policy by which male health aides are assigned to each outer island have a long history of implications for understanding gendered health relationships and women's suffering.

The concept of illness whereby the "interconnections between spirit, mind and body" become misaligned is vital to...