s regarded as a valueable researchsource to both medical researchers and doctors. Leading the way, reports Business Week, is a San Carlos, California-based company called ShamanPharmaceuticals, Incorporated. This small, successful operation has developed a method researchers describe as "ethnobotany", in which the company sends their scientists into the forests to meet with tribal healersabout medicinal properties of plants. The scientist show the shamans medical cases and photos to see how they would treat the problem. According to Business Week, this method bring about "...an initial hit about half the time, versus a miniscule fraction of that in random-screening programs [done by large-scale research companies]"(53). The article continues by saying that Shaman Pharmaceuticals' program is also beneficial to the people of the forest. The company began foundation to help save the homes of the tribes that help them in their research by employing them to harvest the plants that the company uses(52).Unfortunately, with each advance by those who destroy the forest and disrupt the cultures within, this knowledge becomes increasingly threatened. There are several reasons why. Sadly, the tribal healers areeither forced out of their homes along with their tribes or die from illnesses or violence brought in by outsiders. Eugene Linden, a journalist of Time,points out a more disturbing reason: the young tribe members are ashamed of their culture. They have seen the technologies and novelties of civilization outside the forest and are embarassed by their simple lifestyle. "Students who leave villages for schooling...learn that people, not the spirits of their ancestors, created the machines, dams, and other so-called cargo of the modern world. Once absorbed, this realization undermines the credibility and authority of elders" (Linden 50). Therefore, since some of their former teachings or beliefs were proved wrong, they make no effort ...
