Romanticizing Traditional Knowledge
While these achievements deserve respect, many practices promoted under the banner of indigenous knowledge lack scientific merit and should be approached with caution. In Australia, attempts to incorporate the Aboriginal practice of ‘spiritual healing’ into the health system have been met with alarm as it involves a belief in sorcery and supernatural intrusions rather than biological agents. In the United States, alternative treatments include Native American herbal remedies, spiritual ceremonies, and sweat lodges. The use of these untested therapies divert valuable resources away from evidence-based medicine and can legitimize ineffective alternatives. In some cases cancer patients have refused proven treatments for traditional remedies.
This trend also extends to the romanticization of ancient European knowledge. Just because a practice has been followed for centuries does not automatically elevate it to the status of ‘ancient wisdom.’ Bloodletting, which can be traced back to ancient Egypt, has been used in Europe since the Middle Ages to treat an array of medical conditions until the 1850s – and may have hastened the death of George Washington, who had an estimated 40 percent of his blood removed prior to his death. As Historian William Stahl observes: “The writings of the ancients…were cherished and preserved as golden sayings. Our own household remedy books, so popular in the last century, contained page after page of worthless cures taken from … Dioscorides, Galen, Pliny and …Apuleius.” There is a long history of once revered European beliefs that have not passed scientific muster from astrology and alchemy. While once held to be legitimate knowledge, each of these practices eventually collapsed under the weight of scientific scrutiny.
The Rise of Indigenous Pseudoscience
Nowhere has the trend of embracing indigenous knowledge gained more of a foothold in mainstream institutions than in New Zealand where the government has given it equal status with science in the school qualification system. This elevation has resulted in many grandiose claims about the power of the Māorilunar calendar to influence everything from human health and well-being to horticulture and the weather. In 2023, Māori politician Hana Maipi-Clarke asserted that the calendar could be used to predict floods. There is no evidence to support this claim. Many factors affect rainfall: air and water temperature, atmospheric pressure, cloud formation, wind, humidity, the jet stream, and the burning of fossil fuels. The moon is not one of them. Another popular claim is that a full moon can affect plant growth by pulling moisture in the soil upward to nourish seedlings.The moon’s gravitational pull on soil moisture is negligible.
Just last year the government allocated $400,000 dollars to study if lunar phases affect pregnancy activities despite studies consistently showing no correlation between lunar phases with childbirth and health outcomes. Such projects divert important resources from evidence-based maternal care. The relevant factors in birth outcomes are biological, genetic, and medical, not the waxing and waning of the moon. One of the more far-fetched claims has been advanced by psychiatrist Dr. Hinemoa Elder. She has written a popular book in which she asserts that the Māwharu phase of the Māori lunar calendar is associated with enhanced female sexual libido. More concerning are reports of patients discontinuing their medication for bipolar disorder to instead use lunar phases to regulate their mood.
There are even reports of public school teachers using the calendar to guide their lessons – adjusting them to synch with the phases of the moon. Some refuse to give exams during ‘high energy’ phases as they believe students will lack focus and be prone to misbehavior. One teacher told a reporter for the country’s largest education union, “If it’s a low energy day, I might not test that week. We’ll do meditation, mirimiri [massage]. I slowly build their learning up, and by the time of high energy days we know the kids will be energetic.” Some government officials have even taken to scheduling meetings on days deemed less likely to trigger conflict. There is no scientific evidence to support these claims.
Separating Science from Superstition
Indigenous traditions deserve respect but they must be held to the same rigorous standard as other bodies of knowledge. Some ‘ancient wisdom’ is has proved to be genuinely valuable, while other claims lack scientific grounding or have yet to undergo rigorous testing. For science to survive the culture wars, scientists must be willing to evaluate indigenous knowledge without dismissing it outright or accepting its veracity uncritically, but duly evaluating it on merit, regardless of cultural significance.
References
Henry, Oakeley (2023). Modern Medicines from Plants: Botanical histories of some of modern medicine’s most important drugs. London: CRC Press.
Schwarcz, Joseph (April 5, 2024). “Sordid Medicine Shows Exploited Indigenous Cures American settlers capitalized on Indigenous Peoples’ long history of using plants to treat ailments.” McGill University, Montreal, Canada, Office for Science and Society, accessed at: https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/medical-history/sordid-medicine-shows-exploited-indigenous-cures?utm_source=chatgpt.com3.
Singh, Inder (1955). “Reserpine In Hypertension.” The British Medical Journal 1, no. 4917 (1955): 813-17.
Burbank, Victoria (2017). The Embodiment of Sorcery: Supernatural Aggression, Belief and Envy in a Remote Aboriginal Community. The Australian Journal of Anthropology 28: 286-300; Maher, Patrick (1999). “A Review of ‘Traditional’ Aboriginal Health Beliefs.” The Australian Journal of Rural Health 7(4):229-236 (November).
Gall, Alana et al. (2018). “Traditional and Complementary Medicine Use Among Indigenous Cancer Patients in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States: A Systematic Review.” Integrative Cancer Therapies 17(3):568-581.
Witt, Charles (2003). “The Health and Controversial Death of George Washington.” Ear, Nose & Throat Journal 80(2):102, 104-105; Stephen, Ruiz (2023). “A Medical Mystery Almost as Old as America: What Actually Killed George Washington?” Military.com, September 11, accessed at: https://www.military.com/history/medical-mystery-almost-old-america-what-actually-killed-george-washington.html7.
Stahl, William H. (1937). “Moon Madness.” Annals of Medical History 9(3):248-263. See p. 263.
“Change 2 – Equal status for mātauranga Māori in NCEA,” New Zealand Ministry of Education, Curriculum Centre, 2025, accessed at: https://ncea.education.govt.nz/change-2-equal-status-matauranga-maori-ncea9.
“Energetic Young Leaders’ Debate: Next Generation of Politicians make their Case.” Newshub (TV 3 New Zealand), August 12, 2023, accessed at: https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYzuCIH_98I10.
“Revitalising Māori Astronomy.” Documentary “Rakaunui. Full Moon. Garden Today but Don’t Fish.” Scottie Productions (Auckland, New Zealand). June 17, 2016. Part of the Curious Minds New Zealand Government initiative led by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, the Ministry of Education and the Office of the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor, accessed at: https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/1274-revitalising-maori-astronomy11.
“Guided by Hine te Iwaiwa: Exploring Maramataka Influence on Pregnancy Outcomes.” The Health Research Council of New Zealand, summary of research grant covering 2024-2026, accessed at: https://www.hrc.govt.nz/resources/research-repository/guided-hine-te-iwaiwa-exploring-maramataka-influence-pregnancy
Londero, Ambrogio et al. (2024). “Exploring the mystical relationship between the Moon, Sun, and birth rate.” BioMed Central Pregnancy and Childbirth 24(1):454.
Elder, Hinemoa (2022). Wawata Moon Dreaming: Daily Wisdom Guided by Hina the Māori Moon. Auckland, New Zealand: Penguin Random House, pp. 78 and 129.
Parahi, Carmen (2020). “The Ancient Māori Healing System that is Making Waves.” Stuff (New Zealand), January 19, accessed at: https://hapuhauora.health.nz/highlights/the-ancient-maori-healing-system-that-is-making-waves15.
Collins, Heeni (2021). “Te Maramataka: A Way to Live and Know.” AKO: The Journal of the New Zealand Educational Institute Te Riu Roa. Summer, accessed at: https://akojournal.org.nz/2021/01/13/te-maramataka/16.
Botting, Susan (2024). “Far North Mayor Moko Tepania to Graduate from University of Waikato with Master of Education Degree.” Northern Advocate, April 16, accessed at: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/far-north-mayor-moko-tepania-to-graduate-from-university-of-waikato-with-a-master-of-education/BDAS3D3UEFDXPH6MEMUFCMXEDI/
Robert Bartholomew is an Honorary Senior Lecturer in Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Auckland and a Research Fellow at the Center for Inquiry. This article was sourced from HERE.
10 comments:
If half of what is claimed here EG
- teachers using the calendar to guide their lessons
- adjusting them to synch with the phases of the moon.
- refuse to give exams during ‘high energy’ phases
- no testing on low energy day that week.
- government officials scheduling meetings on days deemed less likely to trigger conflict.
Then these people should be referred to as LUNATICS.
As long as we produce science graduates who are not fluent in epistemology, there will be a blurry distinction made between science and ethnoscience and a temptation to make them look like variations on the same theme.
'Epistemology' refers to the ways in which claims or assertions are tested to ascertain whether they are true or not. Scientific epistemology is based on empiricism, which demands empirical evidence (that which can be objectively observed or measured). The epistemology of ethnoscience has no such requirement. Indeed its epistemological reasoning processes include supernatural elements which by definition are outside the empirical domain.
We do not need to spend time and money investigating ethnoscientific claims. They are based on an epistemology that is incompatible with that of science and so any congruence is usually attributable to coincidence.
Hi Barend. Only too true. We are all too familiar with the Chinese whispers-style make it up on the spot/as we go along cultural voodoo afflicting this country employed by certain politicians and academics.
Can anyone name the person who gave that $400,000 for that obvious nonsense ?
Meanwhile, the rest of us go to great lengths to raise money for truly worthy causes such as breast cancer.
Irrational and irresponsible.
I think this article was sensitivity written in stating there are useful traditional cures from all cultures and science proves that.
In the 1950s while in a tropical country a family member acquired severe diarrhea and anti- biotics were prescribed but failed to cure. Local people suggested yogurt, which did cure , however it has taken some time for Western Medicine to accept this .
Vitamin C is still ridiculed by main stream medicine but people have been using this to alleviate colds and flu for decades and Otago University has recently done research on it and discovered it indeed reduces symptoms.
To think Big Pharma is honest and has all the answers is naive . They are a money making business and their agendas include stamping out home /natural remedies , which don't profit them.
Not one useful home remedy was recommended for prevention of Covid , except taking paracetamol , a pharmaceutical . The truth is Vit, D3 was shown by research to be lacking in those who died of covid.and a Canadian Professor of medicine stated you were more likely to end up in hospital if you took paracetamol during a covid attack.
It is this sort of blinked attitude , by the medical establishment to natural cures that drives people to seek them . With a little bit of research on the internet you can find peer reviewed research that gives harmless alternatives to some doctors' drugs.
The medical establishment has recently taken a real hit of credibility with covid since almost 50% of the population now believe the covid jabs cause heart inflammation which peer reviewed research confirms.
Many groups in the US are agitating for doctors to be given more courses on nutrition , since at present it is not taught well. The more pharmaceuticals a society has the sicker it is.
I certainly don't accept this weird astrological , astronomical stuff but sections of modern medicine is myth as well.
Nice thought, Robert, but those promoting indigenous knowledge need to be held to a higher level of account, before any money is expended on investigating their claims. For the proponents of this 'knowledge' have a clear proclivity, when offered 'an inch, take a mile', and one only needs to remember the $4M sunk on the Kauri dieback whale oil and song rort to realise there is much opportunism and grift when it comes to such matters. And just look at some of the past topics funded by the Marsden Fund. So, there should be an initial test 'pass' required, before any serious time and research is accorded what more often that not is unfounded hocus pocus, which is to be funded in their own time and on the own dime.
And, Barend, you are absolutely right, but many of those attending university these days couldn't spell 'epistemology', let alone understand what it means.
Yes science is truly amazing isn't it. Unlike that erratic all over the place indigenous knowledge that is wrong much of the time, science is NEVER wrong, never makes mistakes, is totally accurate all the time.
And that indigenous stuff has never proved to be of any practical use because it is so unreliable. Although if we perhaps go back to around 1300, conventional navigation at that time, with whatever techniques were being used back then, probably wasn't especially reliable. While at the same time another form of navigation may not always have been reliable. But good enough to make voyages as long or longer than conventional vessels. Is one form of navigation science because it was based on principles and was used by the vessels of Europe and the Middle East? While the other form in the Pacific was also based on principles but wasn't science. Polynesian voyaging was definitely science
Anon above, in trying to make a mockery of science, is portraying his total lack of understanding as to what science is, which is an epistemological process (see my post above).
Over millennia, primitive peoples did work out a few things, but the reasoning processes did not qualify as scientific. Things that worked were kept and those that did not were often discarded, which one could see as a primitive form of empiricism. However, the ways that sort of worked just a wee bit were usually turned into mandatory rituals with little or no scope for improvement. The great strength of science is that it IS sometimes 'wrong' and acknowledges the fact. Only a fool far removed from the workings of science would accuse science of claiming to be 'accurate all the time'.
Anon 8:49 is not only ignorant of the true nature of science as an epistemological system which is based on the idea that a theory is only a "best at this point in time" explanation of the observed facts. The "amazing" thing about science, as an epistemological system, is that it is completely open and actively encourages experiments and observations that can disprove its theories. "Traditiona" knowledge systems don't work this way at all.
Anon is also completely ignorant as to the nature of Polynesian navigation and navigation in general. Yes, around 1300 and until the invention of an accurate chronometer in the 1700's (which was the key to establishing longitude), "conventional" navigation wasn't especially reliable and was in fact NOT science (although it was based on the idea of a world-wide grid of latitude and longitude that went back to 200B.C. Polynesian navigation wasn't especially reliable (you never read about the Polynesian crews who never arrived at their destination, only the ones who got there AND returned to tell the tale), and was absolutely NOT science.
I've got 80,000NM and 65 years of ocean experience on all sorts of yachts as crew, captain, and navigator, and I've studied the history and theory of navigation, so I, unlike Anon 8:49, actually know what I'm talking about.
All this traditional knowledge stuff is simply about self esteem building. People over the years figure out when to plant kumara or fish for eels! Woop-de-do. Most peoples in human history figure out how to avoid starvation. Nothing wrong with teaching eight year olds such info. Not very advanced at university level, though. Those university courses should be nicknamed MOTO, mothers of the obvious, with research published in The Journal of Obvious Studies.
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