User:Umdenviro/sandbox

WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE DRAFT.

Traditional Use of Pythons on the Content of Africa:
This section covers general python use.

Clothing Use
Python skin has traditionally been used as the attire of choice for medicine men and healers. Typically, South African Zulu traditional healers will use python skin in ceremonial regalia.

Python Fat
Typically, species are attributed to healing various ailments based on their likeliness to a specific bodily attribute. For example, in many cultures, the python is seen as a strong and powerful creature. As a result, pythons are often perscribed as a method of increasing strength. It is very common for the body fat of pythons to be used to treat a large variation of issues such as joint pain, rheumatic pain, toothache and eye sight. Additionally, python fat has been used to treat those suffering from mental illnesses like psychosis. Their calm nature is thought to be of use to treat combative patients.

Python Blood
Python blood plays another important role in traditional medicine. Many believe that python blood prevent accumulation of fatty acids, triglycerides and lipids from reaching critically high levels. Additionally, their blood has been used as a source of iron for people who are anemic, which helps reduce fatigue.

Python Venom
The venom in African rock pythons has been used to treat and prevent tumors

Python Fesces
The Sukumu Tribe of Tanzania have been known to use python feces in order to treat back pain. It is frequently mixed with a little water, placed on the back, and left for two to three days.

Python Organs
In Nigeria, the gallbladde r and liver of a python snake are used to treat poison or bites from other snakes. The python head has been used to "appease witches". Many traditional african cultures believe that they can be cursed by witches. In order to reverse spells and bad luck, traditional doctors will prescribe witch heads. The head is also used to prevent potential accidents from happening. Additionally, if someone is seeking a marital partner, the head will be used to attract a wife or husband.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Article Evaluation: Ivory trade

Some immediate issues I see are that there are several places in which it says "citation needed" as opposed to citing the source. The introductory paragrpah also lacks citations which is problematic because it makes the article seem less credible. However, what is cited comes from credible sources with functioning links, so in that regard it is okay.

Everything in the article is relevant to the subject. It begins by talking about the early ivory trade, which is contextually useful in understanding its modern implications. It talks about international agreements, various used of ivory, stances of different countries, and international trends. All of this is relevant and helpful. At first I thought the section on terrorism was irrelevent but it fits in quite well contextually.

It is also neutrally written. It provides different opinions surrounding the wildlife trade, and does not necessarily favor any one stance. The sources support this claim because they come from relatively neutral publications as well like Al Jazeera and the New York Times. They also have environmental organizations like the Sierra Club and the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The information is up to date as well. They cite a law from 2018, and explain recent agreements within the past 5 years. One thing they could add is recent statistics as to how much the ivory market has changed. Some of their information on that part is outdated.

One potentially underrepresented viewpoint is the viewpoint of people (primarily in Asia) who are buying the ivory products. It doesn't go into depth as to why, and doesn't really explain the market. I think this could be an interesting component!

While there is not much going on in the talk section, one user points out biased tone because of the use of words like "glaringly clear" in which the user thinks the article then becomes unprofessional. Another user mentions that the author focuses too much on elaphant ivory and ignores other animals. Both of these problems have been corrected.

The article is realted to our class because it discusses ivory trade, which is an important component of the illegal wildlife trade. It is part of several projects:

WikiProject Africa, Animals, Crime and Trade. A key difference between this article and class is that it talks about illegal trade in other parts of the world, whereas in class we focus primarily on Africa.