| Popular interest in, and the use of, medicinal herbs in the U.S. has risen dramatically in recent years. Prior to the social changes associated with the 1960's, the medicinal use of herbs was variously illegalized, marginalized, ignored, or forgotten. The current "herbal renaissance," has been characterized as a reaction against biomedicine, or attributed to advances in the pharmaceutical processing of herbs. The community most closely associated with the rebirth of herbal awareness---the recreated or "Spring" herbalists tell a different story. To many of them it is understood to be a gesture of the earth---as a great organism capable of volition---to facilitate its healing in an era marked by pathologies of extreme human-nature disassociation.; I argue that this identifies U.S. herbalist culture as a spiritual revitalization movement. In its purest expression, this spirituality "indigenizes" those who are in close association with the lifeways of plants, and creates a culture aligned with the dynamics of healthy natural ecosystems. I term this "neo indigenous" and use it to characterize the origins of contemporary U.S. herbalism.; This study uses two contrasting explanatory models of herbal efficacy---the whole plant vs. active constituent---to describe the antecedents, growth, and overall "health" of the social bodies involved in the perception and use medicinal herbs in the U.S. As herbalists have adapted to, and been changed by, mainstream culture (e.g., consumerism, scientific medicine, and regulatory pressures), they have branched into forms that prioritize the needs and teaching of the earth, and those that prioritize political and popular acceptance. This has had subsequent effects on herbalist identities, and gives great symbolic cogency to licensing, standardized herbal extracts, and interpretations of herbal efficacy.; Whether or not a Spring herbalist, "keeps the vision or goes for the money," the vision refuses to disappear from U.S. herbalist culture and discourses, and continues to attract adherents. It is the purpose of this study to articulate this vision, set it in cultural context, relate it to herbalist identities, and suggest its value in the revisioning of the ecologically destructive culture that "runs" industrial growth societies. |
