Amazon tribe creates 500-page traditional medicine encyclopedia


The Matsés, an indigenous population in Brazil in Peru, teamed up with Acaté, a conservation group, to create a medicinal knowledge encyclopedia. The encyclopedia was compiled by five shamans, took two years, is 500 pages long, and “details every plant used by Matsés to cure a massive variety of ailments.” It not only preserves ancestral knowledge, but is seen as a way to improve the health of Matsés and future generations. “Until their encyclopedia, the Matsés entire traditional health system was on the unchecked verge of disappearance.”

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