Making Medicine Cultural in Rapa

Abstract

The effectiveness of herbal medicines that are used to treat ordinary or naturalistic diseases in Rapa, French Polynesia, is not subject to supernatural explanation or to any known biochemical agent in the medicines themselves. Nor are the Rapans themselves able to explain the efficacy of their medicines. This raises the theoretical issue of how anthropologists may identify meanings of which the members of the culture are unaware. After addressing that issue, the three major types of diseases Rapans recognise are described. It is proposed that in Rapan culture the efficacy of herbal medicines to cure ordinary diseases is found in the many rules regulating medicine preparation and treatment.