You will be redirected to OpenEdition Search. Glimpses into a multispecies system of medicine and care. As part of a comparative anthropological project on pathogens K eck et al. That is to say, mahouts are aware that when provided the plants necessary for a healthy diet, sick or infected elephants will supplement this diet by searching for specific plant species and parts of plants bark, leaves or roots that may be medicinal.
In villages, contrary to elephant management in tourist or conservation centres, mahouts and elephant owners do not claim to control all aspects of animal feeding and care.
For them, the forest is the equivalent of a pharmacy hank ka ya where elephants can choose from a diverse abundance of vegetation and encounter a selection of medicines on their own. When a village elephant appears to be sick, the mahout voluntarily leaves the animal alone in the forest for a few days so that the elephant becomes healthy sabai again. That is, respect for the knowledge of the elephants themselves and their capacities for self-medication.
For data collection in the field, I mobilised two methods. First, the tools of ethnographic inquiry, which involve immersion with the population concerned, repeated observation of practises and their variants, and the observation and conduct of semi-structured interviews and life stories.
Second, I mobilised the tools and methods of ethnoscience, including ethnobotany and ethnozoology H unn , A total of 36 mahouts and elephant owners were interviewed in northern Sayaboury province, primarily in the villages surrounding the town of Hongsa, between June and August These observations will highlight the similarities in human and elephant treatment, both in terms of rituals and medicinal remedies.
