Details

Series

Kultur und soziale Praxis. [More in this series]

Biographical/​Historical note

Britta Rutert, born 1974, works as a research associate at Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin. She received her PhD from Free University Berlin in 2016. She is also an ethnographic researcher at the Open African Innovation Research (openAIR) Network.

Summary note

• This book deals with the values of medicinal plants and associated knowledge(s) in the field of bioprospecting in post-apartheid South Africa. Bioprospecting, the use of genetic or biological resources for commercial purposes, is a profit-oriented enterprise facing new challenges with the rise of human rights and biodiversity politics. This new situation has led to claims for political leverage made by indigenous communities, as well as to claims for national and local cultural identity and heritage. The picture presented here contributes to the widely discussed yet so far unresolved question of how to appropriately share benefits, and how to protect indigenous knowledge in this field.
• »Die Lektüre des Buches ist [...] eine Reise durch ein Land, das nach wie vor für viele Westeuropäer ein Geheimnis ist und eher mit Mord und Totschlag in Verbindung gebracht wird, als mit dem natürlichen Kapital, das dieses Land besitzt.« Thomas Feltes, https://polizei-newsletter.de, 239 (2020)

Dissertation note

Doctoral Thesis Freie Universität Berlin 2016

Contents

Frontmatter 1 Contents 5 Acronyms and Abbreviations 11 Chapter I. Opening Pandora's Box: Bioprospecting in South Africa 15 Chapter II. Methodological, Theoretical and Spatial Reflections on Bioprospecting as a Field in Translation 35 Chapter III. Ambiguous Contact Zones: Politics, Economy and the Ethnographer 65 Chapter IV. "Our Knowledge Belongs to Our Ancestors": Topographies of Knowledge and the Question of Property 111 Chapter V. Transformative Science: From Muthi to Chemical Compound 157 Chapter VI. ABS - A Stony Path Towards Sharing: The Chances and Challenges of Access and Benefit Sharing 209 Chapter VII. Partial Solution: The Biocultural Community Protocol 245 Chapter VIII. Closing Pandora's Box: Conclusion 295 Bibliography 311

ISBN

3-8394-4794-1

OCLC

1154632117

Doi

• 10.14361/9783839447949

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