Earth Medicine, Earth Food [Paperback]

Michael A. Weiner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 12, 1990

Long before there was pharmacology as we know it, the North American Indians cured illness and maintained health by natural means, using the healing plants of the forest, desert, and seashore. Their discoveries continue to have impact on modern medicine: over 25 percent of all prescription drugs contain plant derivatives, and the mainstream medical establishment is acknowledging the effectiveness of herbal remedies in treating certain illnesses.

Earth Medicine, Earth Food is an A-to-Z reference to the plant remedies and wild foods used by the Indians. Organized by condition -- from allergies to female complaints to wounds -- it explains which plants were used by different tribes to treat specific maladies, how they were prepared, and how to identify them in the wild. You'll learn that:
-- The Catawba Indians treated back pain with a tea of arnica roots
-- The Iroquois and Mohegans used the boneset weed for colds and fever
-- The Blackfoot Indians applied a paste of scarlet mallow to burns as a cooling agent
-- The Menominees cured insomnia with a tea steeped from the leaves of the partridge berry plant
-- The Onondagas drank pennyroyal tea for headache

Earth Medicine, Earth Food also discusses non-animal food sources consumed by the Indians such as nuts, seeds, berries, and ferns, and examines the relevance of traditional dietary patterns to the way we eat now.

With over 160 detailed illustrations of plants as they are found in nature, Earth Medicine, Earth Food belongs on your shelf next to such works as Food and Healing Traditional Foods Are Your Best Medicine, and guides to Chinese medicine.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A fantastic collection of traditional herbs, foods, and plants, some of which have been nearly forgotten, but all of which, strangely enough, served us for centuries as the best health remedies available."

Vine Deloria, Jr.

"A remarkable compendium of herbal knowledge."

Prevention Book Club

"Utterly absorbing reading."

Cincinnati Enquirer

From the Publisher

A fascinating A to Z guide to Native American knowledge of herbal remedies and wild plants, this compendium of natural cures for asthma to wounds explains which plants and herbs work, and why, the history of their usage on this continent and how they were adapted by Europeans, and gives helpful illustrations. This classic is still one of the best in the field after more than 25 years in print and is indispensable for herbalists and gardeners.
Leslie Meredith
Executive Editor & Divisional Vice President
Ballantine Wellspring

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 230 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; Rev Exp edition (December 12, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0449905896
• ISBN-13: 978-0449905890
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #282,385 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #8 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > Native American

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still useful survey by noted herbalist, June 7, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Earth Medicine, Earth Food (Paperback)

Emphasis is on native North American uses of plants for medicines
rather than foods, though a last section covers this briefly but
interestingly.

Book is organized by condition or problem, listing herbal
remedies of various tribes for each. How they were prepared -- no info. Methods of identification (b&w sketches, not always clear). An
The majority of plant medicines were women's, (not "shaman's"). Few remedies were comprised of only one plant. Most medicines were complex mixes of several parts of different plants, picked at different times, prepared in diffeernt ways, and mixed in strict proportions, given in careful dosages if taken internally.

Last (Foods) section of the book is more interesting, and least dangerous (should the reader be tempted to experiment) . The
plants shown and told about there are usable today.

Plants are indexed by
common and botanical names, and grouped as "remedies" for problem medical conditions which no one should
try to use. No Indian names for any plant.

Black and white drawings of many (but
not all) plants are of varying quality, seem ot have been taken from old
herbals. None are much good for field identifications. Plants are not shown in different growth stages or seasons, though many must be IDed at one time then picked or dug at another (usually late fall, when they have lost all leaves or perhaps withered entirely from a bulb).

Weiner did all research for this book from old printed materials. There
is no indication he had ever met or spoken with an Indian person,
though he lived some years in Fiji doing research for another book. Most old ethnobotany writings were compiled by male anthros who were more interested in shamans performing than in women, who held and used and knew most of the pharmacopeia. Men couldn't really tell these guys much, and they didn't bother interviewing women, for the most part. Then too, few Native women in the 19th century would have spoken to visting anthros about anything.

Thus most of our real knowledge beyond what oral tradition and practical use preserved comes from a handful of 19th and early 20th century women anthros who were interested in women's knowledge and were trusted: Frances Densmore, Mathilde Coxe Stephenson.

Yankton scholar Vine Deloria, Jr, liked Weiner's book, but I think it is shallow. It tends to suggest
that Native herbal medicine was simplistic and ineffective. The food
sections suggest this is archaic stuff nobody prepares or eats today -- untrue. I find page numbers close to the center of the book (and missing on many pages) maddening when one must constantly flip back and forth between indexes. It bewilders me that only common names are used in the body text, you must look up botanic names in one of the indexes. It would have been easy enough to run them in parenthetically, next to the entry for the plant.

Still he doesn't get into garbled mysticism, and that's a break. It is the case that plant remedies require care, thanks, prayer, and respect, which is best not discussed except in very general ways in print.

Reviewed by Paula Giese, editor of Native American Books website
(http://www.fdl.cc.mn.us/~isk/books/bookmenu.html)

12 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't Be an Idiot..., August 7, 2005

By 

Yun Yammka, The Slayer God (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Earth Medicine, Earth Food (Paperback)

I think that you would be very stupid to pass up this book based solely on the writer's political affiliation. If I did this, I wouldn't read HALF of the books that I read.

0 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Earth Medicine Earth Food, November 3, 2009

By 

S. Petty "Merginglight" (N.W. Arkansas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Earth Medicine, Earth Food (Paperback)

I rated this particular item with three stars. Not because it isn't valueable, but because at this time in my life I am searchign for particular answers and tyhis book, however valueable it is, didn't have the answers I was seeking. Yet, the book is well done and full of good info.