The biotech and pharmaceutical industries and indigenous medicine: Conquest or complementarity

This thesis explores the relationship between the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries and indigenous medicine, with specific focus on the appropriation of traditional knowledge and the prospecting of plant materials and human cell lines. The exploitation of indigenous peoples is based in an ethos of conquest and supported by an increasingly entrenched system of international law that imposes Western intellectual property rights on Native communities and the developing world. Recognizing the inherent complementarity of Western and indigenous cultures would lead to a more harmonious coexistence between the two forms of medical knowledge. The notion of cultural complementarity implies a relationship between equals, suggesting the kind of mutuality that precludes the domination of one culture by the other. Given a situation in which power is unevenly shared, its actualization will require fully recognizing the wisdom and long-term benefits of transforming the current situation into one based in cooperation and respect.