Maca, Medicine & Libraries
Last evening I was led to look up Maca and found this piece:
Maca (Lepidium meyenii, Lepidium peruvianum) is part of the Brassicaceae family and grows at high altitudes in the Peruvian Andes mountain range (3500–5000 m). Historically, it has been used as a nutrient-dense food and for its medicinal properties, primarily in enhancing energy and fertility. Scientific research has validated these traditional uses and other clinical applications by elucidating maca’s mechanisms of action, nutrition, and phytochemical content. However, research over the last twenty years has identified up to seventeen different colors (phenotypes) of maca. The color, hypocotyl size, growing location, cultivation, and post-harvest processing methods can have a significant effect on the nutrition content, phytochemical profile, and clinical application.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10892513/
Not long ago I ran into someone who runs an integrative med program and we had a cool conversation that led to to him really resonating deeply with what I said about Indigenous Peoples. He mentioned how he has started to feel ridiculous quoting research to med students that is all stolen knowledge, and has started seeking out Indigenous Teachers to learn from or bring in. I observed that thousands of years of community knowledge are of more value than a shitty study with conflicts of interest, sketchy end points and bogus placebos. He agreed. When I came across the maca study, I was reminded of this synchronous incident because the study observes that research affirms and confirms traditional uses for maca, and in particular black maca.
It was a lovely experience in the sense that my husband and I had been led to that particular coffee shop at that particular time and I got the nudge to get up and leave just as that particular gentleman was getting on his bike and getting ready to leave, yet in an open space to connect, whereas in the coffee shop we saw him but weren’t led to say hi as he seemed absorbed in his phone. As he rode his bike away, he said, “This was meant to be.” And I thought about the wonderful, incredibly successful men that I am blessed to know, including here on Substack, who seek and respect wisdom rather than credentials, and who use theirs to do good in the world. If you’re one of them, Thank You. If you are a woman, woman of color, non-binary person, fellow human being, or benevolent ET who is seeking to embody authentic power to heal, bless, restore, uplift and honor life in this world and beyond in a loving way, Thank You.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10892513/
If you don’t already, I encourage you to check my “notes” tab if you like hearing my random thoughts and spontaneous poems, because when I post things that are off-algorithm, I’ve noticed it seems they don’t get seen or get seen much later than when I post them. The following I posted in such a note:
A rabbi, a doctor and a lawyer walk into a garden where the air is fresh and there is only love. They look, from a higher realm at what is going on within humanity and agree on these three things:
1. All people are, regardless of religion or viewpoint are victims of psychological warfare
2. All people need healing
3. The people responsible were victims of psychological warfare and still need healing
Rabbis know how to tell stories. Doctors know how to tend wounds. Lawyers know how to parse complicated interrelationships between different arguments and to cut through bullshit.
We all know the shadow side of spiritual leaders who are sold out to political interests, doctors who are groomed from before birth and processed through medical school and residency programs designed with so many conflicts of interest, even in the manner in which conflicts of interest are and are not disclosed at various levels, in both the journals and those who fund the research, and lawyers have very often worked covert criminal elements that also had overt “legitimate interests” that were very influential in the world.
But I bet we also know a Rabbi or other spiritual leader who told us stories in a way that brought something wonderful and wholesome to life in us and invited us to the table of life in way that is nourishing and supportive of the goodness of life for all of humanity. I bet we know a doctor – or other healer – who has had the ability to listen in a way that sets our feet upon path of healing, gets to the bottom of a complicated issue, diagnoses something others missed in a way that leads us to next steps, or at least empathizes with us and helps us feel heard in a way that relieves us beyond belief, especially if we have experienced feeling invalidated in the healthcare system. And I think of the three, laywers get the worst wrap, I am happy to say that I have known numerous lawyers with pure hearts who are doing good work in the world, each in their own ways. I had a great divorce lawyers when I needed to get out of a very bad marriage at quite a young age. I wrote on substack a while ago about a wonderful law student I met at the coffee shop was about to graduate who wants to practice trauma-informed law. And I greatly respect the work of Peter d’Errico who is working to delayer and eventually undo the doctrine of Christian Discovery, which is an inherently racist, genocidal, paternalistic, religious doctrine that shockingly got absorbed and established like a nearly invisible virus in the modern legal systems of every nation that is a result of colonialism.
I really enjoyed reading a paper by Erica Neeganagwedgin, in which she explores Indigenous Women’s voices and stories:
“The creation stories of the White Buffalo Woman and the Sky Woman show the significant status of women within Indigenous nations.”
She explores the way in which indigenous women and men only learned to see women as inferior after colonialism, while supporting the reclamation of indigenous voices through her paper.
Here is a list of some of her work:
Chapters & Journal Articles
Neeganagwedgin, E. (2022). Indigenous Science Knowledge and Epistemologies in Practice: Living Everyday Research. Journal of Indigenous Social Development, 11(1), 145-158. https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/jisd/article/view/73893
Neeganagwedgin, E. (2022) “Taino Lands and Taino knowledge”: Disrupting dominant construction of Caribbean Indigenous Peoples in (eds) Tate. S. & Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Palgrave Handbook of Critical Race and Gender. Palgrave Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83947-5_19
Neeganagwedgin, E. (2022). Caribbean Indigenous Experiences of Erasure: Movement, Memory and Knowing. Analecta Politica, 12(22), 1-17. http://dx.doi.org/10.18566/apolit.v12n22.a01
Neeganagwedgin, E. (2021). Reflections on Land Back and Education. Rooted: An Indigenous Law Publication. Vol 1. Issue 2. Pp. 43-47. Indigenous Law Association at McGill, McGill University.
Neeganagwedgin, E. (2021). Creating Community in Digital Learning Spaces as Embodiment of Indigenous Self-Determination. Journal of Global Indigeneity, 5(1), pp.1–15.
Neeganagwdgin, E. (2020). Indigenous Ancestral Lands and Elders' Epistemogies in a Time of Pandemic. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 16(4), 406-408.
Neeganagwdgin, E. (2020). Enacting Indigenous Community Relationships and Governance Systems as a Framework for Teaching and Learning. Journal of Indigenous Social Development, 9(3), 183–192.
Neeganagwedgin, E. (2020). Embodying Indigenous Education and Intellectual Systems as a Framework for Teaching and Learning; Canadian Journal of Native Studies. Vol 30 #2.
Neeganagwedgin, E. (2020). Indigenous Lands and Territories: Self-Determination, Activism and Canada’s White Paper. Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations. XXI, No. 1.
Neeganagwedgin, E. & Opini, B. (2020). Instructional Design and pedagogy; Reconceptualizing Practises, In (eds). Andre Elias Mazawi and Michelle Stack. Course Syllabi in Faculties of Education across the world. Bodies of Knowledge and Their Discontents. Bloomsbury Critical Education. Bloomsbury Academic Publishers.
Opini, B. & Neeganagwedgin, E. (2020) Centering Indigenous and Decolonizing pedagogy; The complexities, tensions and possibilities of doing spirit work in teacher education. In (eds). Andre Elias Mazawi and Michelle Stack. Course Syllabi in Faculties of Education across the world. Bodies of Knowledge and Their Discontents. Bloomsbury Critical Education. Bloomsbury Academic Publishers.
Neeganagwedgin, E. (2019). Indigenous systems of Knowledge and Transformative Learning Practices: Turning the gaze upside down; Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education.
Neeganagwedgin, E. (2019). “There needs to be full recognition of who we are beyond symbolic gestures:” Indigenous People’s Stories about Their Education and Experiences. Journal of American Indian Education, Vol. 58, No. 1 & 2.
Neeganagwedgin, E. (2019). Since time immemorial: A historical review of Canada’s policy of extinguishment of Indigenous peoples through its Indian Act. ab-Original: Journal of Indigenous Studies and First Nations and First Peoples' Cultures.
Neeganagwedgin. E. (2015). Taino Identity, Oral History and Stories of Reclamation in Contemporary Contexts AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples
Neeganagwedgin, E. (April 2014) “They can't beat our ancestors out of us:” A historical account of Canada’s residential school system, incarceration, institutionalized policies and legislations against Indigenous peoples. The Association for Canadian Studies, Canadian Issues
Wane, N. & Neeganagwedgin E. (November 2013) Introduction in(eds) Wane, N. and Neegan, E. Indigenous Traditional Healing Approaches and Research Practices; Toronto: Nsemia Publishing.
Neeganagwedgin E. and S. Mungari (November 2013) Healing Practices of Kenyan Traditional Healers: A Dialogue/Interview in (eds) Wane, N. and Neegan, E. Indigenous Traditional Healing Approaches and Research Practices; Toronto: Nsemia Publishing.
You can find her here.
I also really enjoyed Steven Schwartsberg’s piece on Indigenous Law and the role modeling he and
do of how to have deep respect and a shared interest in justice for the Nations of Turtle Island, while also having slightly different perspectives in their views of some things.Some forms of colonialism are physical. Others seek to control and exploit the mental landscape where we live – and get us to live in mental landscapes designed to exploit us, control our physical and psychic behavior or even potentially, annihilate us. I know many people are excited about crypto and I like the idea. Personally, I won’t use it until issues around backdoor technology and using body energy, including brainwaves during crypto processes are addressed so that this kind of things simply cannot occur. Many other harvesting technologies are out there, and while I am not here to judge there use in health, I am absolutely here to assert my sovereignty and that no energy or body data may be harvested from me.
According to
who wrote a piece on Zhang,, the founder of an addictive, algorithm-driven platform and former Microsoft employee: “His new life as an entrepreneur started with a failure. After leaving Microsoft, the 25-year-old software engineer joined Fanfou, a Twitter-type social media company located in Beijing. But Chinese authorities shut down the website.” Zhang apparently learned from this experience to kiss Chinese buttocks, but he also learned something that I’ve seen on less controversial platforms:“The mistake previous social media platforms made, he believed, was giving too much control to users. This was messy and led to constant censorship battles. Zhang understood that the real power must reside in the recommendation algorithm—which would put him in control.”
https://substack.com/@tedgioia/note/p-107492955
One of the most inspired, rebellious acts we can take is initiative.
Gioia mentions the initiative required for a library search. But it turns out even the library is based on a racist system, developed by a sexual predator who somehow managed to engage in unethical financial behavior and still end up having songs sung about him by young children, which idealize his role in bringing us the supposed greatness of the library system.
Now I was never a library girl. I didn’t like the vibration of libraries anymore than I was into history until I could take that initiative to delve into my own questions and begin to find some answers that are either breadcrumbs toward the truth or have the resonance of truth. By truth I don’t mean an ultimate perspective in this case, I mean a lack of propaganda and an understanding that resonates in a clean way within my energy body and explains the facts or acknowledges what we do and don’t know with clarity, humility and an intention to find and express truth and to be open to learning and correction when/if new paradigms shift the understanding.
Why didn’t I like libraries? I don’t know, completely. Partly the stuffiness. I never liked the Dewey Decimal System. The hushing if you said something above a whisper, or even if she whispered. But later in life I discovered something after my oldest daughter came home singing a song about Melvil. I decided to exercise my initiative and look him up, just to see what I would find, and I just did so again and found something new I hadn’t seen before. Whereas before I learned that he was racist and so was the system he devised, I only now learned of his aggressive sexual behavior, that the articles insist on calling harassment in the titles even when it is clear within the article itself that he was accused of assault - both of these articles in their content acknowledge the minimization of Dewey’s harmful behavior that has occurred, yet they perpetuate by calling his behavior sexual harassment instead of using the word assault, abuse or violation in the title itself. Dewey went on to be librarian-in-chief of at Columbia after doing financially unethical things:
Lacking sufficient capital to push for reforms, however, Dewey soon merged the treasuries of all of these organizations into a single account and (without informing any of them) used that account as collateral against which to borrow money to fund initiatives that he was pushing in each. He continued this practice as president of the private Readers and Writers Economy Company (RWEC) that he started in 1879. In 1880, when other RWEC investors discovered what he was doing, they obtained a court injunction that denied him access to these funds.
Dewey became Librarian-in-Chief at Columbia College in 1883.
In the 1890s, his Library Bureau also developed a card-index system that reduced record-keeping costs for banks and insurance companies. Most of the money Dewey realized by this venture he rolled back into other reforms, including a private Lake Placid Club that he and his wife Annie started in 1894 as an exclusive rest and recreation facility in the Adirondack Mountains. From the beginning, however, the club admitted no Jews or ethnic or racial minorities. In 1905, several prominent New York City Jews protested, and under the pressure, Dewey resigned as state librarian. About the same time, several library school alumnae and ALA women threatened to bring a vote of censure against Dewey for sexual harassment of females at ALA conferences. In 1906, they forced him out of active ALA participation.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/media/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/dewey-melvil-1851-1931
https://libguides.pratt.edu/dewey-decimal-system/melvil-dewey
https://www.history.com/news/the-father-of-modern-libraries-was-a-serial-sexual-harasser
What would the world look like if we restored women to a sacred place in the role of creation, rather than either encouraging them to compete in a system designed by and for men? What would it be like if men did not tolerate other men abusing, exploiting, subjugating or harassing women, but cultivated an attitude of reverence for all life and appreciation for women that includes deep respect?
The other day I was talking with my husband about how the whole conversation around feminism and career has evolved in how I see it. Instead of asking whether or not it is appropriate for a feminist woman to opt out of a workforce in which rewards are given as to rats to keep talented people “engaged,” in the work of corporatism, or to “hussle” to find a way to make ends meet as an entrepreneur, what if men as well as women were free to opt out of such dynamics? Why are we so removed from our natural livelihoods? Although I believe Klaus Schwab should be the one to go first to own nothing and be happy, I ultimately believe that we will be happier as a humanity when we have a way of contributing, sharing, exchanging, giving, receiving and dancing with life’s energies of abundance that resembles an ecology rather than a conventional economy.
