Supernatural in Primitive Medicine
In primitive medicine, the supernatural is involved in all aspect of disease and healing. Because disease and misfortune are attributed to supernatural agents, magic is essential to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease.
All events must have a cause visible or invisible.
Thus the disease for which there are no obvious immediate causes must be due to ghosts, spirits, gods, sorcery, witchcraft or the loss of one of the individual’s special “soul.”
Illness called for consultation with those have the power to control the supernatural agents of disease: the shaman, medicine man, wise man, diviner, witch-smeller, priests, chief, soul-catcher, or sorcerer.
A close examination of the roles and powers assigned to such figures reveals many specific differences, but for our purpose the general term “healer” will generally suffice.
However, we should note that most societies differentiate between healers and herbalists who dispense ordinary remedies and the shamans or priests like healers who can intercede with the spirits that affect, weather, harvest, hunting, warfare, conception, childbirth, disease and misfortune.
Although the shaman performs magical acts, including deliberate deceptions, she or he neither a fake nor a neurotic.
The shaman is as sincere as a modern physician or psychiatrists in the performance of healing rituals.
When sick, the shaman will undergo therapy with another shaman, despite, knowledge of all tricks of the trade.
For shaman, the cause of the disorder is more significant than the symptoms because the cause determines the manner of treatment, be it penicillin or exorcism.
Diagnostic aids may include a spirit medium, crystal gazing and divination.
Having performed the preliminary diagnostic tests, the healer conducts a complex ritual involving magic spells, incantations, the extraction of visible or invisible objects, or the capture and the return of the patient’s lost soul.
To drive out or confuse evil spirits, the shaman may give the patient a special disguise or a new name, offer attractive substitute targets, or prescribe noxious medicines to transform the patient onto an undesirable host.
The shaman may dispense powerful drugs but it is the ritual, with its attempts to compel the cooperation of supernatural powers, which is of prime importance to healer, patient and community.
Outsiders may see the healing ritual in terms of “magical” and “practical” elements, but for healer and patient there is no separation between the magical and empirical aspects of therapy.
Supernatural in Primitive Medicine
Friday, October 30, 2009
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Medicine during Ancient Egypt
Medicine during Ancient Egypt
The influence of Sumerian civilization upon that of Egypt is a subject of interesting and continuing debate, but certainly as long as 4000 BC there was a well organized governmental system in the Nile delta.
With it came the development of the pictorial writing of hieroglyphics and the discovery that writing material could be prepared from the papyrus reed, a more convenient medium than clay bricks.
Around 2900 BC lived the first famous individual whose name has come down to us in medicine.
Imhotep, visier to King Zoser. An administrator political and builder of the great stepped pyramid of Sakkara, still to be seen today, he must also have been distinguished as a physician, although we know nothing on his medical contribution.
He was worshipped for many centuries after his death as god of medicine.
A number of medical papyn have come down to us which are of great interest. The Ebers papyrus was found in a tomb at Thebes in 1862 by Professor George Ebers and is now preserved in the University of Leipzig.
It consists of 110 sheets and contains 900 prescriptions.
As a calendar has been written on the back of the manuscript, the date of its writing can be fixed with reasonable accuracy at about 1500 BC.
However, there is good evidence to show that much of it has been copied from other works many centuries before.
The writings are sprinkled with incantations, which suggest that the remedies were given with the intention of driving out of demons of disease.
Amulets were also advised; these often consisted of images of the gods and were to be hung around the neck or tied to the foot.
A whole variety of drugs are mentioned including castor oil, which was used as purgative.
All sorts of animal substances were used, including the fat of various animals and bile.
Medicine in ancient Egypt would appear to have been of an empirical or magical variety.
Medicine during Ancient Egypt
The influence of Sumerian civilization upon that of Egypt is a subject of interesting and continuing debate, but certainly as long as 4000 BC there was a well organized governmental system in the Nile delta.
With it came the development of the pictorial writing of hieroglyphics and the discovery that writing material could be prepared from the papyrus reed, a more convenient medium than clay bricks.
Around 2900 BC lived the first famous individual whose name has come down to us in medicine.
Imhotep, visier to King Zoser. An administrator political and builder of the great stepped pyramid of Sakkara, still to be seen today, he must also have been distinguished as a physician, although we know nothing on his medical contribution.
He was worshipped for many centuries after his death as god of medicine.
A number of medical papyn have come down to us which are of great interest. The Ebers papyrus was found in a tomb at Thebes in 1862 by Professor George Ebers and is now preserved in the University of Leipzig.
It consists of 110 sheets and contains 900 prescriptions.
As a calendar has been written on the back of the manuscript, the date of its writing can be fixed with reasonable accuracy at about 1500 BC.
However, there is good evidence to show that much of it has been copied from other works many centuries before.
The writings are sprinkled with incantations, which suggest that the remedies were given with the intention of driving out of demons of disease.
Amulets were also advised; these often consisted of images of the gods and were to be hung around the neck or tied to the foot.
A whole variety of drugs are mentioned including castor oil, which was used as purgative.
All sorts of animal substances were used, including the fat of various animals and bile.
Medicine in ancient Egypt would appear to have been of an empirical or magical variety.
Medicine during Ancient Egypt
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Pre- and Ancient History of Medicine
Pre- and Ancient History of Medicine
Prehistoric man looked upon illness as a spiritual event. The ill person was seen as having a spiritual failing or being possessed by demons. Medicine practiced during this period and for centuries onward focused on removing these demons and cleansing the body (and/or spirit) of the ill person.
Trephination (holes made in the skull to vent evil spirits or vapors) and religious rituals were the means to heal.
With advanced in civilization, healers focused on “treatments” that seemed to work. They used herbal (vegetable) medicines and became more skilled as surgeons.
About 4000 years ago the Code of Hammurabi listed penalties for bad outcomes in surgery. The surgeon lost his hand if the patient died.
The prevailing medical theories of this area and the next few millennia involved manipulation of various forms of energy passing through the body.
Health required a balance of these energies. The energy had different names depending on where the theory was developed.
The ancient Chinese system of medicine as based upon the duality o the universe.
Yin and Yang represented the fundamental forces in a dualistic cosmic theory that bound the universe together.
The first systematic study of human anatomy didn’t occur until the mid eighteenth century.
It consisted of the inspection of children who had died of plaque and been torn apart by dogs.
Medicine in ancient India was also very complex. Medical theory included seven substances: blood, flesh, fat, marrow, chyle and semen. From extant records, we know that surgical operations were performed in India as early as 800 BC, including kidney-stone removal and plastic surgery (replacement of amputated noses, the punishment for adultery).
Diet and hygiene were crucial to curing in Indian medicine and clinical diagnosis was highly developed, depending as much on the nature of the life of the patient as on his symptoms.
Other remedies included herbal medications, surgery, and the “five procedures”: emetics, purgatives, water enemas, oil enemas and sneezing powders.
Anatomy was learned from bodies that were soaked in the river for a week and then pulled apart. Indian physician knows a lot about bones, muscles, ligaments and joints but not much about nerves, blood vessels, or internal organs.
Greek began to systematize medicine about the same time as the Nei Ching (oldest medical textbooks in China) appeared in China.
Although Hippocratic medical principles are considered archaic, his principles of the doctor patent relationship are still followed today.
In Rome, Galen created anatomical descriptions of the human body based primarily on the dissection of animals.
The Middle Ages saw the continued practice of Greek and Roman medicine. Most people turned to folk medicine that was usually performed by village elders who healed using their experiences with local herbs.
Arab medicine introduced the use of chemical medications, the study of chemistry and more expensive surgery.
Pre- and Ancient History of Medicine
Prehistoric man looked upon illness as a spiritual event. The ill person was seen as having a spiritual failing or being possessed by demons. Medicine practiced during this period and for centuries onward focused on removing these demons and cleansing the body (and/or spirit) of the ill person.
Trephination (holes made in the skull to vent evil spirits or vapors) and religious rituals were the means to heal.
With advanced in civilization, healers focused on “treatments” that seemed to work. They used herbal (vegetable) medicines and became more skilled as surgeons.
About 4000 years ago the Code of Hammurabi listed penalties for bad outcomes in surgery. The surgeon lost his hand if the patient died.
The prevailing medical theories of this area and the next few millennia involved manipulation of various forms of energy passing through the body.
Health required a balance of these energies. The energy had different names depending on where the theory was developed.
The ancient Chinese system of medicine as based upon the duality o the universe.
Yin and Yang represented the fundamental forces in a dualistic cosmic theory that bound the universe together.
The first systematic study of human anatomy didn’t occur until the mid eighteenth century.
It consisted of the inspection of children who had died of plaque and been torn apart by dogs.
Medicine in ancient India was also very complex. Medical theory included seven substances: blood, flesh, fat, marrow, chyle and semen. From extant records, we know that surgical operations were performed in India as early as 800 BC, including kidney-stone removal and plastic surgery (replacement of amputated noses, the punishment for adultery).
Diet and hygiene were crucial to curing in Indian medicine and clinical diagnosis was highly developed, depending as much on the nature of the life of the patient as on his symptoms.
Other remedies included herbal medications, surgery, and the “five procedures”: emetics, purgatives, water enemas, oil enemas and sneezing powders.
Anatomy was learned from bodies that were soaked in the river for a week and then pulled apart. Indian physician knows a lot about bones, muscles, ligaments and joints but not much about nerves, blood vessels, or internal organs.
Greek began to systematize medicine about the same time as the Nei Ching (oldest medical textbooks in China) appeared in China.
Although Hippocratic medical principles are considered archaic, his principles of the doctor patent relationship are still followed today.
In Rome, Galen created anatomical descriptions of the human body based primarily on the dissection of animals.
The Middle Ages saw the continued practice of Greek and Roman medicine. Most people turned to folk medicine that was usually performed by village elders who healed using their experiences with local herbs.
Arab medicine introduced the use of chemical medications, the study of chemistry and more expensive surgery.
Pre- and Ancient History of Medicine
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