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Research ArticleArticles

Head of a Serpent, a Pinch of Rue

Women, Indigenous Pharmacology, and the Patriarchy of French Colonizing Science in Morocco

Ellen Amster
History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals, January 2022, 63 (2) 195-222; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3368/hopp.63.2.195
Ellen Amster
Hannah Unit in the History of Medicine and Medical Humanities at McMaster University;
Roles: Jason A. Hannah Chair in the History of Medicine and Director
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Abstract

French physicians denigrated traditional medicines in Morocco as the magic and sorcery of Moroccan women—ancient “matrones”—even as French pharmaceutical companies, pharmacists, and scholarly societies bioprospected among Moroccan healing plants looking for new drugs. Morocco had centuries of male Galenic physicians whose pharmacological texts informed popular practice, and Muslim women historically translated between this “high” tradition and family health. Because Moroccan women were identified as the primary practitioners of traditional pharmacy, but they were protected from official French interference, French women were enlisted to report on their practices. Among these was colonial wife Aline Reveillaud de Lens (Pratiques des harems marocains) and physician Dr. Françoise Legey (Essai de folklore marocain). Dr. Abel Charnot, founder of the first toxicology laboratory in Morocco, viewed Moroccan women as criminals and toxicology as the civilizing science to conquer women’s sorcery. French colonial pharmacy was thus patriarchal as well as colonizing and positivist. Healing plants in colonized Morocco were polysemous—simultaneously circulating in healing systems, colonial political economies, and the epistemic struggle of French colonialism against Moroccan knowing. Traditional pharmacopeia remains popular therapy in postcolonial Morocco. Argan oil, souak, and other “women’s” plants are popular on the global market with ambivalent implications for local women’s empowerment.

Keywords:
  • French colonialism
  • traditional pharmacopeia
  • women’s history
  • Moroccan healing
  • gender
  • © 2022 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
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In this issue

History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals: 63 (2)
History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals
Vol. 63, Issue 2
1 Jan 2022
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Head of a Serpent, a Pinch of Rue
Ellen Amster
History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals Jan 2022, 63 (2) 195-222; DOI: 10.3368/hopp.63.2.195

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Head of a Serpent, a Pinch of Rue
Ellen Amster
History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals Jan 2022, 63 (2) 195-222; DOI: 10.3368/hopp.63.2.195
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  • Article
    • Abstract
    • “My Mother Prepared Those for Us”: Galenic Pharmacology and Women’s Medical Mediation in Morocco
    • Le Rite et L’Outil: French Pharmaceutical Bioprospecting in “Women’s Sorcery”
    • The Frenchwoman as Ethnographer of Moroccan Women’s Pharmacology
    • Crime and Female Villainy in the Toxicology Laboratory of Dr. Charnot
    • Conclusion
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More in this TOC Section

  • Afterword
  • An Empire of Materia Medica at the Late Medici Court
  • Special Issue Introduction
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Keywords

  • French colonialism
  • traditional pharmacopeia
  • women’s history
  • Moroccan healing
  • gender
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