Robert Bartholomew: We Can't Value ‘Ancient Wisdom’ Over Scientific Fact

Over the past decade there has been an explosion of interest in indigenous knowledge. The United States, Canada, Australia, and South Africa have been at the forefront of the movement to integrate ‘ancient wisdom’ with modern science and decision-making by applying it to everything from public health to climate change. The appeal is both understandable and alluring. For millennia, indigenous cultures have accumulated a vast repository of information that has helped them to adapt and survive. Prior to European contact, the Quechua of the Andes used quinine from the bark of the cinchona tree to treat fevers. It later proved to be the first effective treatment for malaria. Salicin from the willow tree was used by tribes in the Americas to treat pain, fever, and inflammation and led to the development of aspirin. The active ingredient in snakeroot, reserpine, was used for centuries by native peoples in India to treat high blood pressure and was adopted by Western physicians as an early treatment for hypertension. From stellar navigation to sophisticated construction techniques, agricultural innovations, and hunting strategies, indigenous knowledge has made significant contributions to human progress.

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.

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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.