In one of the great tragedies of our time, indigenous traditions, histories, cultures and knowledge are flashing across the world.
Entire languages and mythologies are disappearing and in some cases even entire indigenous groups are falling into extinction.
Matsés peoples Brazil and Peru
This is what makes the news that a tribe in the Amazon – the Matsés peoples of Brazil and Peru, created a 500-page encyclopedia of their traditional medicine all the more remarkable. The encyclopedia, compiled by five shamans with the help of the conservation group Acaté, details each plant used by Matsés medicine to cure a huge variety of ailments.
“The [Matsés Encyclopedia of Traditional Medicine] marks the first time that shamans from an Amazonian tribe have created a complete and complete transcript of their medical knowledge written in their own language and words,” Christopher Herndon, president and co-founder of Acaté, told Mongabay in an interview.
Watch the full interview: Mongabay
BY Alan Seo MS Brazil