Mauritius, Reunion and Rodrigues
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The medical traditions of the Indian Ocean islands of Reunion, Mauritius and Rodrigues are unique.Originating from the creolization of the knowledge and practices of many peoples from many places, these traditions are part and parcel of a natural world that offers both resources and inspiration. They serve as a key to understanding these Mauritius, Reunion and Rodrigues Laurence Pourchez societies that are engaged in a constant dialectic between tradition. – Once deserted, these islands were populated from the end of the 17th century onwards by peoples originating from Europe, Madagascar, Africa, India, China, and even Polynesia and Australia. The dialogue amongst the medical traditions possessed by each of these groups WOMEN’S has given rise to a knowledge system, shared and passed on largely by women. This book brings to our attention the knowledge that these women KNOWLEDGE possess about medicinal plants and medical acts, with a particular focus on those related to childbirth. It also reflects on the place of traditional medicinal knowledge in these insular societies facing both Medicine and Nature Traditional : the pressures of globalization and the resurgence of local identities. Traditional Medicine and Nature Mauritius, Reunion and Rodrigues WOMEN’S KNOWLEDGE ISBN 978-92-3-204197-6 UNESCO Natural Sciences Sector Publications United Nations United Nations Educational, Scientific and Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Cultural Organization LOCAL & INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE 1 Laurence Pourchez WOMEN’S KNOWLEDGE Traditional Medicine and Nature Mauritius, Reunion and Rodrigues This book should be cited as Pourchez, L. 2017. Women’s Knowledge: Traditional Medicine and Nature – Mauritius, Reunion and Rodrigues. Local & Indigenous Knowledge, 1. UNESCO: Paris, 120 p. Published in 2017 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 7, place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07-SP, France © UNESCO 2017 ISBN 978-92-3-104197-6 This publication is available in Open Access under the Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO (CC-BY-SA 3.0 IGO) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/). By using the content of this publication, the users accept to be bound by the terms of use of the UNESCO Open Access Repository (http://www.unesco.org/open-access/terms-use-ccbysa-en). The present license applies exclusively to the text content of the publication. For the use of any material not clearly identified as belonging to UNESCO, prior permission shall be requested from: [email protected] or UNESCO Publishing, 7, place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07-SP France. Originally published in French Savoirs des femmes : médecine traditionnelle et nature – Maurice, Réunion, Rodrigues. Savoirs locaux et autochtones, 1. Published in 2011 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The ideas and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors; they are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization. For more information, please contact UNESCO’s Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (LINKS) programme – [email protected] Translation from French Chris Miller The English translation was supported by the Government of Reunion and the Unit for Training and Research in Health, University of Reunion English editing Alison Clayson, Serena Heckler, Trupthi Narayan, Douglas Nakashima Photos © Laurence Pourchez (unless otherwise stated); cover: © Bios/Specialist Stock Layout and production Julia Cheftel Cover concept Stéphane Rébillon, www.stephanerebillon.com Printed by UNESCO Printed in France Table of contents Foreword 8 Douglas Nakashima Preface 9 Didier-Roland Tabuteau Introduction 11 Background, objectives and methodology 11 An anthropology of the Mascarene archipelago 13 Women, traditional knowledge and cultural complexity 14 Methodology 15 Chapter I 17 Geography, history and settlement 17 Mauritius 18 Reunion 19 Rodrigues 20 Variations in settlement and history 21 First settlements 21 The period of slavery 25 Abolition and indentured labour (engagisme) 26 Immigration in the twentieth century 31 A lack of women 33 4 Table of contents Chapter II 35 Women’s knowledge 35 The knowledge of the matrones 36 Marital rules and transgressions 48 Other knowledge transmitted by women 52 Chapter III 59 Traditions of medicine 59 Creolisation: body and ailment 62 Which medicine? 68 Chapter IV 71 Relationship with nature 71 Original flora and fauna 71 Dynamic knowledge 73 Prevention 76 Treatment 81 An empirical medicine 87 The indivisibility of the sacred and the profane 89 Illnesses and a medical system specific to the Mascarenes 91 5 Chapter V 96 A woman’s territory 96 Knowledge apparently receding… 96 … but not, in fact, lost 96 Knowledge that survives and evolves 97 Ambiguous acknowledgement 100 Current representations 101 Conclusion 103 A heritage 103 Bibliography 105 Glossary 111 Creole terms used 111 Ethnobotanical index 114 6 Acknowledgements Without her interlocutors, an anthropologist knows nothing and has no findings to communicate. Therefore I would first like to thank all those who, in Mauritius, Rodrigues and Reunion, have been kind enough to help me with my research over the last fifteen years by giving me their time and offering me access to their knowledge. Since 1994 many of the elders with whom I worked have departed this life and I dedicate this book to them. I would also like to thank all those who, by facilitating my surveys and bibliographical research or assisting me with administrative procedures, have accompanied me in the realisation of this work. I cannot possibly name everyone to whom I am thus indebted in the space of a single page. I would nevertheless like to offer my particular thanks to Douglas Nakashima and Nadine Fresco for their insightful reading and comments; Didier-Roland Tabuteau for undertaking the preface to this work; Richard Payendee and his team for their assistance during my 2005 survey in Rodrigues; and Jacques Véloupoulé, Mauritian consul in Reunion, for his assistance during my 2010 mission. I gratefully acknowledge financial support towards the English translation by the Government of Reunion and the Unit for Training and Research in Health, University of Reunion. To Henriette, Hyacinthe, Marie-Ange, Andréa, Catherine and all the women of the Mascarene Islands. 7 Foreword The islands of the Indian Ocean have been populated by successive waves of peoples from Europe, Madagascar, East Africa, India and China. Each of these groups brought with them their own concepts, understandings and ways, including those relating to health, well-being and medicinal plants. Once they settled in a new social and ecological setting, they perpetuated certain traditions, adapted others, and innovated in interaction with, not only the different peoples around them, but also a new flora that they discovered and blended into their repertoires of medicinal practice. It is this vibrant syncretization of cultures that Professor Laurence Pourchez, anthropologist and native of La Reunion, captures through her intimate and delightful dialogues with the women of Mauritius, Rodrigues and La Reunion – midwives, tisaneuses and healers. This book is the first in a new UNESCO publication series, launched by the Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (LINKS) Programme. The series Local & Indigenous Knowledge addresses the knowledge and know-how elaborated by indigenous peoples and local communities that traverse the boundaries between ecological and social systems – between biological and cultural diversities. Through its focus on women and their medicinal knowledge in the small islands of the Indian Ocean, this work contributes to UNESCO’s commitment to prioritise both Africa and Gender as part of its Medium-term Strategies for the periods 2008 to 2013, and 2014 to 2021. The book also contributes to the implementation of the Samoa Pathway for the sustainable development of Small Island Developing States, as it illustrates the key role of island cultures as foundations for sustainable development. More than anything else, Women’s Knowledge: Traditional Medicine and Nature brings to the fore the many women coming together from distant corners of the globe, who have forged from the diversity of their cultures and their natural milieu, a unique testimony of the creative force of the human spirit. Douglas Nakashima Head, Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (LINKS) programme, UNESCO Focal Point for Small Island Developing States, Natural Sciences Sector, UNESCO 8 Preface Women’s Knowledge: Traditional Medicine and Nature (Mauritius, Reunion and Rodrigues) – Laurence Pourchez’s book invites us to discover the traditional medicinal practices of Reunion Island, Mauritius and Rodrigues. The reader is introduced to the obstetrical traditions of these islands, including plant medicines and illnesses – ‘that-the-doctor-doesn’t-know’. ‘Refreshing’ plants to purify the body, ‘stag-horn water’ to appease the ‘kriz’ of children from Reunion, and ‘tanbav’ tisanes that accompany the last stages of pregnancy… Her account of these preparations and techniques opens before us the great pharmacopoeia of infusions, decoctions, ointments, plasters, cataplasms,