I’m looking for some educational content too.

And as native culture is increasingly re-embraced, how fast do you think indigenous knowledge will spread about natural medicinal remedies from native plants? And further knowledge on what’s best to plant for local wildlife?

Because fascism always fails, I know these things will happen, but I have zero understanding of the framework for how it will.

  • HexaSnoot [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    if you didn’t have any of those available, but you have a willow tree and the wherewithal to process it, it’s better than nothing. But the tree is unpredictable, higher rate of bad effects and a pain in the ass to prepare

    This is one of the only kinds of scenarios I’d risk ingestion of herbal remedies. What I was looking at was a poultice that helps shallow cuts and scrapes heal faster, and the antidepressant properties of the mimosa tree(invasive to the US) when someone’s feeling heavy enough levels of grief. The poultice for something small but could spin out to being life ending for an individual when it could be avoided with just a tidbit of help. The mimosa tree for someone going through what could stop them functioning during a crisis where they must momentarily relax, think clearer, and/or keep moving.

    Yeah I could guess that modern medicine is usually what’s best.

    It’s okay, I understand you assuming it could be pure whimsy since plants are neat. Going through such rabbitholes reveals delightful facts about them. This rabbithole is full of nice vibes. I guess I already understood all the things you mentioned(minus the herbalist needing to be paid too, I forgot about that) but it’s nice to have you summarize that all in text.

    • hellinkilla [they/them, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      2·
      2 months ago

      Really I don’t think anything is good to put on cuts. Its such a natural instinct to want to do it but the best thing is to keep it loosely covered but not in a damp way, clean with water and soap if needed. Poultices are unused in most any modern context because they are just a bunch of dirty crap. If there way any value, it would have been known and exploited. There is no conspiracy against poultices. They are easily comodifiable if any utility. Surface wounds are one of the most well understood of ailments because of their prevalence in military settings. Lit er al ly everything plausible has been tried, tested, studied.

      Tincture of time is the cure to many problems. All medicinal traditions (including western) include things which practitioners understand as pointless but which give the suffering patient (or their family) something to do to keep their mind off things, to allow the body to heal itself. An elaborate prescription sometimes amounts to “go away for now and come back later”. And this is the best possible thing that can be said for “plant medicines” most of the time.

      I just don’t think this concept one way or the other is relevant to your main question, which was a good and legitimate one, that ought to have ongoing discussions of many posts building on each other.

      eta

      IDK about mimosa, I looked on my fav website wikipedia:

      and it is crediting Chinese medicine for the effect you describe. So I am having a hard time understanding that in context here. It seems that per your own description, this is an invasive plant, not the “native” which is idolized. We must think that any serious indigenous medicinal system, including plant-based, would likely be forward looking and looking around at the current realistic situation so that isn’t a total block. Also all people can learn from one another. The plant medicine that I have learned about are flexible in their communities of life. But can’t just be thinking spooky non white people are all kinda the same! that is very un good.