Daniel Ellis Moerman | |
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Born | |
Alma mater | University of Michigan |
Known for | Work in ethnobotany and the placebo effect |
Awards | University of Michigan Distinguished Faculty Governance Award (1991) [1] |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Medical anthropology |
Institutions | University of Michigan-Dearborn |
Thesis | Extended family and popular medicine on St. Helena Island, S.C.: adaptations to marginality (1974) |
Daniel Ellis Moerman (born 1941) is an American medical anthropologist and ethnobotanist, and an emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. [2] He is known for his work relating to Native American ethnobotany and the placebo effect.
Moerman was born in Paterson, New Jersey. [3] He received his AB, MA and PhD degrees in anthropology from the University of Michigan in 1963, 1965, and 1974, respectively. [1] He became a professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan-Dearborn in 1984, and was appointed the William E. Stirton Professor of Anthropology at the university in 1994. [1]
Moerman has spent over 25 years developing a catalogue of over 4,000 plants used by Native Americans for medicinal purposes. [4] [5] He has also published studies on the placebo effect, one of which found that more people with stomach ulcers were healed when taking four placebos per day than when taking two. [6]
In 1991, Moerman became the first faculty member at the University of Michigan's Dearborn campus to receive the University's Distinguished Faculty Governance Award. [7]
A medicine man or medicine woman is a traditional healer and spiritual leader who serves a community of Indigenous people of the Americas. Each culture has its own name in its language for spiritual healers and ceremonial leaders.
Marshall David Sahlins was an American cultural anthropologist best known for his ethnographic work in the Pacific and for his contributions to anthropological theory. He was the Charles F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and of Social Sciences at the University of Chicago.
Ethnobotany is an interdisciplinary field at the interface of natural and social sciences that studies the relationships between humans and plants. It focuses on traditional knowledge of how plants are used, managed, and perceived in human societies.Ethnobotany integrates knowledge from botany, anthropology, ecology, and chemistry to study plant-related customs across cultures. Researchers in this field document and analyze how different societies use local flora for various purposes, including medicine, food, religious use, intoxicants, building materials, fuels and clothing. Richard Evans Schultes, often referred to as the "father of ethnobotany", provided an early definition of the discipline:
Ethnobotany simply means investigating plants used by primitive societies in various parts of the world.
The common names soap plant, soaproot and amole refer to the genus Chlorogalum. They are native to western North America, with some species in Oregon but they are mostly found in California. Common names of the genus and several species derive from their use as soap.
The University of Michigan–Dearborn (UM-Dearborn) is a public university in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1959 with a gift from the Ford Motor Company, it was initially known as the Dearborn Center, operating as a remote branch of the University of Michigan. Upon receiving its own accreditation in 1970, the branch became a fully-fledged university and subsequently changed its name to the University of Michigan–Dearborn. It continues to adhere to the policies of the University of Michigan Board of Regents without having a separate governing board.
A poultice, also called a cataplasm, is a soft moist mass, often heated and medicated, that is spread on cloth and placed over the skin to treat an aching, inflamed, or painful part of the body. It can be used on wounds, such as cuts.
Erna Gunther (1896–1982) was an American anthropologist who taught for many years at the University of Washington in Seattle. Gunther's work on ethnobotany is still extensively consulted today.
Ted Jack Kaptchuk is an American medical researcher who holds professorships in medicine and in global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School. He researches the placebo effect within the field of placebo studies.
Balsamorhiza sagittata is a North American species of flowering plant in the tribe Heliantheae of the family Asteraceae known by the common name arrowleaf balsamroot. Also sometimes called Oregon sunflower, it is widespread across western Canada and much of the western United States.
Mentzelia multiflora, commonly known as Adonis blazingstar, Adonis stickleaf, desert blazingstar, prairie stickleaf and manyflowered mentzelia is a herbaceous perennial wildflower of the family Loasaceae.
Claude J. Summers is an American literary scholar, and the William E. Stirton Professor Emeritus in the Humanities and Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. A native of Galvez, Louisiana, he was the third child of Burg Martin Summers and Theo Coy Causey. He was educated in the public schools of Ascension Parish, graduating from Gonzales High School in 1962. He has long credited two teachers at Gonzales High School—Diana Sevario Welch and Sherry Rushing—for inspiring his interest in academic achievement.
Ribes laxiflorum is a species of currant known by the common names trailing black currant, and spreading currant. It is native to western North America.
Bolboschoenus robustus is a species of flowering plant in the sedge family. It is known by many common names: saltmarsh bulrush, alkali bulrush, sturdy bulrush, seacoast bulrush, stout bulrush, three-cornered sedge or leafy three-cornered sedge, and seaside club-rush.
Daniel E. Little is professor of philosophy at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and professor of sociology and public policy at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He previously served as the Chancellor for the University of Michigan-Dearborn (2000-2018).
Ribes leptanthum is a spiny-stemmed, small-leaved species of gooseberry in the genus Ribes commonly called trumpet gooseberry. It is native to Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah, where it is usually found in high-altitude canyons.
This is a list of plants used by the indigenous people of North America. For lists pertaining specifically to the Cherokee, Iroquois, Navajo, and Zuni, see Cherokee ethnobotany, Iroquois ethnobotany, Navajo ethnobotany, and Zuni ethnobotany.
See also Zuni ethnobotany, and Native American ethnobotany.
Howard A. Brody was an American bioethicist and family physician. He was a professor of family medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch prior to his retirement from there in 2016. For much of his time at the University of Texas Medical Branch, he was the director of the Institute for the Medical Humanities there. Brody has performed research in the field of placebo studies.
Joseph Patrick Gone is a clinical and community psychologist, social scientist, and academic. He is Professor of Anthropology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard University. He is also the Faculty Director of the Harvard University Native American Program.