Understanding self through difficult family dynamics and cultural appropriation

This paper originated with a question posed about cultural appropriation by westerners of indigenous Peruvian medicines and cultural practices. It has developed into a collaborative, self-reflexive project between one of the authors of this paper and her academic advisor. Her father, a journalist and adventurer, has organized regular tours through the Amazon that focus on practicing and experiencing Peruvian medicine. He has had a lifelong desire for adventure which led him into the deep jungles of Peru. While his research and exploration has led to "selfdiscovery and contributions to science," his travels left his daughter with a sense of discomfort and concern. After his return to the United States, her father shared his new knowledge of Amazonian medicines with the Western world through published accounts of his travels. As a daughter of a white American father and a Peruvian mother, one of the authors of this paper started to question her father’s actions and wondered if they would be considered exploitation and illegitimate exportation of indigenous medicinal culture. By using a combination of content analysis, case study, and collaborative autoethnography supported by our self-reflexive journal writing, this qualitative study explores the possibility and limitation of academic discourse and the etic and emic perspectives to guide someone to have a better understanding of “self” and family relations within a unique setting of Peruvian medicines and practices in a western society.