“The Use of Medicinal Plants in Southern Appalachia” will be the next presentation in the Southern Appalachian Studies series at the Blount County Public Library.

Anthony Cavender, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at ETSU, will give the presentation on Monday, July 18, at 7 p.m., and will focus on the use of medicinal plants in the late nineteenth century up through the 1940s.

Cavender says, “This presentation examines how the use of medicinal plants among the [early] residents of Southern Appalachia reveals their understanding of the prevention, cause and treatment of illness.”

He adds that he will also address “the related topics of the Native American influence on Euro-American folk and scientific medicine, food as medicine, and future directions of research in folk medicine.”

This East Tennessee area of Appalachia is one of the most biodiverse areas of the world making this a perfect area for the study and use of medicinal plants.

Cavender specializes in the field of medical anthropology, particularly ethnomedicine. He has conducted research on various aspects of ethnomedicine in Southern Appalachia, Southern Africa, and the highlands of Ecuador. He is the author of several articles, the book, Folk Medicine in Southern Appalachia (2003, University of North Carolina Press), and co-editor of A Tennessee Folklore Sampler (2008, University of Tennessee Press and Tennessee Folklore Society).

Open to the public, this program is hosted by the Blount County Public Library, located at 508 N. Cusick Street, Maryville, where services are an example of your tax dollars at work for you.

For further information about library programs or services, call the library at 982-0981 or visit the Web site at www.blountlibrary.org . To sign up to receive a monthly calendar by email, go to the library’s Home Page and type your email address in the box at the top right that says “Email for library news.”