How This Section Describes Traditions: Respect, Sources and Limits

Why this page exists

Traditional healing systems belong to particular peoples and communities, and health information about them can go wrong in two ways. It can flatten them into a single exotic "alternative," or it can quietly treat their ideas as proven medicine. This page explains the rules we follow so you can judge our other pages for yourself. These are our editorial standards, not a claim of authority over any tradition. We do not claim any lineage, training or endorsement from any tradition or community.

Rule 1: name the specific tradition

Continents and "Indigenous peoples" are not single systems. We name the people, region and period where a source allows. For example, Ngangkari are described by the NPY Women's Council as the traditional healers of the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara lands in the remote western desert of Central Australia. [1] In the United States, a health-policy group refers to the diversity of traditional practices among the 574 federally recognized Tribes. [2] Where we cannot name a specific tradition, we say so rather than generalize. We avoid phrases such as "ancient wisdom," "mystical" and "Eastern versus Western."

Rule 2: prefer sources from the communities and bodies involved

Where we can, we use community organizations, practitioner bodies, regulators and credible scholars. Where we use outside sources, such as a counseling journal or a pharmacology review, we say what kind of source it is and what it was written to do.

Rule 3: restricted and sacred knowledge stays with its holders

Some knowledge is not public by choice. UNESCO reports that a book documenting Kallawaya healing practices and botanical knowledge in Bolivia will not be widely distributed and will be exclusive to Kallawaya communities, to ensure the continued transmission of that knowledge to younger generations. [3] We take that as the model. If a practice is ceremonial, sacred or restricted, we say that it is, we do not describe it, and we point to community sources. We never write ceremony, ritual, initiation or sacred-plant instructions, and we do not offer a generic "Indigenous healing" method.

Two statements of principle shape this thinking. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted by the General Assembly on 13 September 2007, says Indigenous peoples have the right to their traditional medicines and to maintain their health practices. [4][5] It also affirms their right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage and traditional knowledge. [4] The First Nations principles of OCAP describe ownership as the relationship of First Nations to their cultural knowledge, data and information, and say a community or group owns information collectively. [6]

Rule 4: a tradition is a framework, research is a separate question

We present ideas such as humors, qi or doshas as traditional frameworks, not as proven biology. Separately, we report what research measured for a specific practice: which people, compared with what, and for what outcome. WHO says that establishing efficacy and safety through rigorous scientific validation is crucial, even if a medicine has been used for a long period. [7] Historical use is a reason to study a remedy, not proof of benefit or safety. We apply the same standard to every approach, and we do not dismiss a practice only because it is traditional.

Rule 5: credit and fairness

Traditional knowledge has often been used commercially without credit. A recent WIPO treaty on genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge sets a patent disclosure requirement: applicants must disclose the country of origin of the genetic resources, or the Indigenous Peoples or local community providing the associated traditional knowledge, if the invention is based on them. [8] WHO's strategy likewise lists Indigenous Peoples' rights, culture and health among its principles. [9] See traditional knowledge protection and benefit sharing and cultural appropriation and traditional healing products.

Where to go next

Start with what traditional healing systems are, then cultural context and respectful representation and Indigenous knowledge: what is public and what is restricted. If you spot a mistake or a disrespectful phrase, tell us so we can correct it.