Up from the roots: Contextualizing medicinal plant classifications of Tibetan doctors in Rgyalthang, PRC (China)

This dissertation argues that natural-kind classifications need to be contextualized within the particular socio-cultural milieu in which they occur; the present work is therefore framed as an ethnography of plant classifications. The linguistic and ethnic context of medicinal plant classifications is explored, and the classifications themselves are analyzed in terms of their cultural and linguistic significance.; In providing the important context in which plant classifications occur, I highlight the extent to which knowledge of plants and medicine is intricately connected to ethnic identity among the consultants with whom I worked. In particular, I discuss the linkages between the state discourse of "ethnic medicine," the local perceptions and practices of Tibetan medicine, and Tibetan identity in a multi-ethnic area. I examine the crucial role that language identity plays in the discourse of plants and medicine by Tibetan doctors, and I identify the linguistic and ethnic "roots" of plant classification in the Tibetan medical tradition. I also explore implications for the linguistic relativity hypothesis and discuss the crucial role of literacy in the classificatory cognition of Tibetan doctors and in my interactions with these doctors.; In my analysis of plant classifications, I examine the ways in which these classifications are connected to the classification of disorders in the Tibetan medical tradition. Taking my cue from Tibetan doctors themselves, I argue that the theoretical foundations of a medical system must be understood in order to fully grasp how medicinal plants are related in a system of classification. Furthermore, I explore the important linkage between plants and disorders through discursive language. I examine the slippage between signifier and signified of plant categories in Tibetan medical texts, since these texts act as crucial cognitive anchors for doctors in terms of classifications. I analyze how Tibetan doctors utilize particular classification lexicon and examine the ways in which this lexicon is situated in the cultural knowledge system of Tibetan medicine (as reference points in medical texts). I also explore the context in which apparent misfits between Chinese and Tibetan lexicon occur and attempt to understand how Tibetan language, both spoken and written, functions in classifying plants and disorders for Tibetan doctors.