The post-doc Curative Uses of the Environment will consist of multi-sited anthropological research in the Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Burundi. It will unfold along two main lines of inquiry that feed into each other. The first will have a more historical focus and will examine how ecological relations were shaped or altered during colonialism; which were the consequences of colonial intervention on local health, healing practices, and well-being more broadly; and what remains today of this colonial memory in local histories, practices, ecologies, and bodies. The second line of inquiry will focus on human-plant symbiosis, particularly in the context of medicinal plants and vernacular healing knowledge and techniques. The objective is to grasp vernacular philosophies of life, and the sensory, somatic and semiotic elements that underpin human-plant relationships in Central Africa.
Photo credits: Lomami Recruitment Mission (MOI) for the UMHK, 1930 (HP. In Au, S & Cornet, A. Medicine and colonialism in Medical histories of Belgium1959.61.264, collection RMCA Tervuren)