This book combines historical biography with a focus on the role of the practitioner in the folk health-care system, and ethnobotany, including a description of the active ingredients of the herbs used in African American herbal medicine. The contributions of European Colonial, American Indian, and African practices to the development of contemporary African American folk medicine are discussed. In addition to showing John Lee's approach to folk medicine, the volume provides descriptions and illustrations of the main herbs used. Folk Wisdom and Mother Wit provides a basic historical framework and background to the continuing viability of a folk medical system based on a pluralism combining biomedicine and traditional health care. As such, it will be of value to scholars and students of medical anthropology as well as Black Studies.

Service Learning: An Agent for Social Change discusses personal, social, academic, and career-related impact of service-learning as an instructional method is well documented. This book contributes to the literature by providing access to examples of the service-learning process; the nuances of its implementation; and qualitative evaluation of what works, from the students' perspective. It can serve as a resource for educators, advocacy groups, community organizers, and other students interested in engaging in social action. The work reports on the process and outcomes of service-learning projects implemented in a higher education setting on topics of domestic violence and youth violence; provides an alternative service-learning approach for non-traditional college settings; and discusses new directions in service-learning project development including web-based and grade school programming and asset-based community development.