Anthropology Colloquium Series

Fall 2008 Anthropology Colloquium

Kava Toxicity in Context: A Contribution to Biocultural Considerations of Ingested Substances

Jonathan D. Baker, Ph.D Candidate
Department of Anthropology, UHM

3:00 pm, 18 September 2008, Saunders 345

Safety controversies swirl around kava (Piper methysticum G. Forst., Piperaceae), a plant with a long history of traditional use in the Pacific. This concern issues from health officials in Western countries, rather than from kava drinkers themselves, who experience no evidence of toxicity. In the 1990s, kava became a popular botanical medicine in Europe and North America as a 'natural' analogue to anti-anxiety pharmaceuticals. However, by 1998, reports of adverse reactions to kava products began to surface. A 2002 ban on kava-containing medicines by German and Swiss authorities triggered similar interdictions in other countries and led to a collapse of the Pacific export market for kava. These bans continue to be challenged by herbal products advocates as well as by many scientists who study kava. In the meantime, kava drinking by Pacific Islanders continues unabated, with no evidence of the detriment that was reported in the West. The evidence for kava's toxicity remains equivocal, both in the field and in the laboratory.

The purpose of the present analysis is not to arrive at some objective truth about kava's safety. Instead, I focus on the culturally constructed and socially negotiated bases for evaluations of safety and risk. Through examining the kava safety debate, the complex, context-dependent nature of benefit/risk assessments is revealed. Comparison of kava to other ingested substances with complex safety profiles (e.g., alcohol and acetaminophen) further illustrates the social and cultural dimensions of toxicity, and contributes to a better understanding of how people evaluate the substances they ingest.

Jonathan D. Baker is a PhD Candidate in Medical Anthropology at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. His dissertation centers on the debate about kava's safety, which serves as a case study to better understand how botanical medicines from diverse non-Western contexts are transformed and 'pharmaceuticalized' as they are adopted into Western medical systems. JD holds an MA in Medical Anthropology from Arizona State University, and a BS in Entomology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His primary research interests lie at the intersection of Medical Anthropology, Ethnobiology, and Science and Technology Studies.

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