When Vance Gellert studied pharmacology in the early ’70s, he found that a scientific method of systematic observation, precise measurement and disciplined testing could explain the efficacy of most treatments. For that matter, it was a satisfying way of explaining much of the world around him.
After completing his postdoctoral work in pharmacology, Mr. Gellert realized that photography was his true calling. He co-founded and ran the Minnesota Center for Photography in Minneapolis.

The canoe journeys are a new tradition for a very old people, but they already have one rigid rule that everyone knows not to break.
That thing you are paddling is called a canoe. Do not call it something else.
“If you call it a boat,” said Mariah Francis, 16, of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, “you’re either supposed to jump in the water or you’ll get thrown in.”

In a South African family where there has been a traditional healer, or sangoma, it's believed that the ancestors want a representative in each generation, to take on the role of healing and providing a channel for the power of the ancestral spirits.

India's booming economy means a growing demand for the resources and raw materials which feed its factories, but one indigenous community under threat is determined to protect its way of life.
The ceremony began when the shaman came staggering out of his hut.
He had splashes of fresh blood daubed on his face and stared blindly as he began a shuffling, swaying dance to the rhythm of the drums.
After a few moments the first woman fell to the ground.

Before there was your family pharmacist, and long before chain drug stores popped up all over, aches and ills were addressed by potions and poultices made from North Fork plants. Nancy Smith of Mattituck, a master gardener for 30 years, has long been fascinated by the role native plants played in the medicine of the Native Americans whose village once stood on the land that’s now home to the Mattituck-Laurel Historical Society.