Ethnic peoples’ medicines as cultural heritage

The 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage recognizes the importance of the knowledge held by communities, especially indigenous communities, as part of the cultural diversity of nations, and seeks to protect and safeguard it by preserving its function in society. 

Article 2, paragraph 3, of the Convention defines safeguarding as “actions aimed at ensuring the survival of intangible cultural heritage, including the identification, documentation, research, preservation, protection, promotion, enhancement, transmission – mainly through formal and non-formal education – and revitalization of this heritage in its various aspects” (1).

Likewise, Article 2, paragraph 1, of the Convention defines that this knowledge, rituals, traditions and oral expressions are part of the “intangible cultural heritage“, understood as “the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills and techniques – together with the instruments, objects, artifacts and cultural spaces associated with them – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage. This intangible cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by communities and groups according to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history, giving them a sense of identity and continuity and thus helping to promote respect for cultural diversity and human creativity” (1).

In this context, the knowledge and practices of traditional medicine, which have been handed down for thousands of years within the cultures and life systems of the indigenous, Afro-descendant, Roma and other ethnic peoples of the Americas, are part of the cultural heritage of the contemporary States of the region and, therefore, an intangible cultural heritage. Not only do they reflect the identity of these populations, but they also demonstrate a way of treating symptoms and curing diseases in contexts where biomedicine does not reach or coexists with it, thus constituting a curative pluralism that offers therapeutic alternatives to the populations.

Therefore, the States, in a participatory manner with these populations, should promote measures to guarantee the protection of traditional medicines. From the health point of view, these measures should consist, among other things, of adopting legal measures, documenting their actions, promoting studies to understand medical pluralism, its functions and its contribution to satisfying health needs, and promoting its practice in articulation and complementarity with national health systems. In this way, the tradition will be kept alive, its transmission will be promoted, and its use will be achieved, thus contributing to the preservation of the cultural diversity of nations.

In this context, the Pan American Health Organization’s Policy on Ethnicity and Health Policy on Ethnicity and Health sets as one of its priority lines of technical cooperation to Member States for the implementation of actions with an intercultural approach, the “recognition of ancestral knowledge and traditional and complementary medicine“, through the realization of dialogues of knowledge https://mtci.bvsalud.org/medicina-tradicional-en-las-americas/los-sistemas-medicos-tradicionales-y-su-contribucion-a-la-salud-del-planeta/dialogo-de-saberes/ and the strengthening of intercultural health models https://mtci.bvsalud.org/medicina-tradicional-en-las-americas/las-medicinas-tradicionales-y-su-articulacion-con-los-sistemas-y-servicios-de-salud/sistemas-y-o-modelos-de-salud-interculturales/.

References.

1. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization -UNESCO. Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage [Internet]. 2003. [Cited 2 August 2023]. Available at: https://ich.unesco.org/es/convención