Folk medicine is created through groups of individuals and spreads due to the diffusion of different ethnic groups. Even though folk medicine is isolated to a region, folk medicine is important in creating the knowledge and treatments of illnesses from past generations. Appalachian folk medicine is unique because of the influence of Native American, African American, and Euro-American cultures. Due to isolation of the region, the elements of Appalachian folk medicine is comprised of outside influences, categories within fork medicine, variations of caregivers, and natural remedies.
Folk medicine is an important aspect of the Appalachian region. According to Mathews, folk medicine is known in involving diseases or illnesses “which are the products of indigenous cultural development and are not explicitly derived from the conceptual framework of modern medicine” (Mathews 1). Folk or traditional medicine is found in all societies, throughout in history, and predates innovation of modern medicine. Folk medicine also explains roles for “indigenous practitioners”(1) who treat and restore health for the individual and community. Folk medicine beliefs and practices serve for the treatment and prevention of aliments and are resistant to change even when the cultural tradition may have gone extinct.
To understand folk medicine, we must first understand how folk medicine came about in the Appalachian region. According to Mathews, the Appalachian area, especially Virginia and North Carolina, was one of the first areas of America to be colonized by Great Britain(Euro-Americans). With a thriving population of Native American and African-American culture, folk medicine was able to flourish in the region due to sharing of remedies, herbs, and...
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Rehder, John B. "Folk Remedies and Belief Systems." Appalachian Folkways. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2004. 224-43. Print.
Watson, Wilbur H. "Folk Medicine and Older Blacks in Southern United States." Black Folk Medicine: The Therapeutic Significance of Faith and Trust. New Brunswick, N.J., U.S.A.: Transaction, 1984. 53-66. Print.
Williams, Michael Ann. "Folklife." Ed. Richard A. Straw and H. Tyler Blethen. High Mountains Rising: Appalachia in Time and Place. Chicago: University of Illinois, 2004. 135-146. Print.
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Throughout ancient history, many indigenous tribes and cultures have shown a common trait of being hunter/gatherer societies, relying solely on what nature had to offer. The geographical location influenced all aspects of tribal life including, spirituality, healing philosophy and healing practices. Despite vast differences in the geographical location, reports show various similarities relating to the spirituality, healing philosophy and healing practices of indigenous tribal cultures.
In the US., the therapeutic group seldom has approaches to correspond with individuals of societies so drastically unique in relation to standard American society; even a great interpreter will think that it troublesome deciphering ideas between the two separate societies' reality ideas. American specialists, not at all like Hmong shamans, regularly physically touch and cut into the collections of their patients and utilize an assortment of capable medications and meds.
Native Americans have a long history of using native plants, berries, herbs, and trees for a wide variety of medicinal purposes. Native Americans have been using these methods for thousands of years.
Illness was treated in many ways but the main goal was to achieve a sense of balance and harmony.(p82). Applications of herbs and roots, spiritual intervention, and community wide ritual and ceremonies were all therapeutic practices.(p71). “It was the healer who held the keys to the supernatural and natural worlds and who interpreted signs, diagnosed disease and provided medicines from the grassland, woodland, and parkland pharmacopoeia.”(p18). The healers knowledge of herbs and roots and ways to administer and diagnose had been passed down from generation to generation.(p85). Healers stood as an advantage for the Aboriginal people. “Trust and a personal relationships would naturally build between the patient and the healer.”(p77). This must have ...
Steiner, Richard. Folk Medicine: The Art and the Science. American Chemical Society. Washington, DC. 1986.
The most phenomenal thing about each individual culture though they may be similar in some ways they vary in the most impeccable manner that makes that group of people unique such as the Navajo Tribe. “The Navajo are natives of the Four Corners region (Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado). The Navajo people are still living in their traditional territory today. The Navajos live on a reservation, which is land that belongs to them and is under their control. The Navajo Nation has its own government, laws, police, and services, just like a small country. However, the Navajos are also US citizens and must obey American law.) Redish, L., & Lewis, O. (2011). Every belief or tradition are what make the very aspect of the Navajo tribe. In traditional Navajo belief, all illness or misfortune arises from transgressions against the supernaturals or from witchcraft (Adams). Consequently, medical practice is essentially synonymous with ceremonial practice (Adams). There are particular kinds of ceremonies designed to treat illnesses caused by the patient's transgressions, by accidents, and by different kinds of witchcraft (Adams). Apart from ceremonial practices, there was formerly a fairly extensive materia medica of herbs, potions, ointments, and fumigante, and there were specialists who collected and applied these (Adams).
In fact, Native American medicine men belief is firmly grounded in age-old traditions, legends and teachings. Healing and medical powers have existed since the very beginning of time according to Native American stories. Consequently they have handed down the tribe's antediluvian legends, which i...
Aleut traditional medicine before the 1800s was treated in various spiritual and practical ways, after the 1800s many of these methods of healing were lost. Aleutians most healing medicine came from medicine women/men and shamans. Shamans were the aboriginal specialists in dealing with the supernatural. They cured the sick and were requested in cases of difficult childbirth (Ransom 348). Shamans were link to the spiritual world, and because they had this link to this world they were able to determine the illness and treat it accordingly. As with many Aleut traditions, shamans and medicine men/women vanished with contact with Russians and European nations.
On the topic of healing rituals, the Iroquois had an unconventional form of medicine. Though they were known to treat common sicknesses and injuries such as wounds and broken bones, they had an alternative method of treating more serious cases. This method involved ritual healers singing and beating of drums in order to cast away bad spirits. The Iroquois even had societies that were dedicated to treating a specific ailment through a specific ritual.
Appalachian culture covers thirteen states in Northern America. It is beneficial to medical staff to be familiar with this culture’s beliefs in order to successfully treat their patients. Without knowledge and education of their social status, environment, nutrition, beliefs, and unhealthy habits, the medical staff can fail in treatment and can misdiagnose their patients.
This book addresses one of the common characteristics, and challenges, of health care today: the need to achieve a working knowledge of as many cultures as possible in health care. The Hmong population of Merced, California addresses the collision between Western medicine and holistic healing traditions of the Hmong immigrants, which plays out a common dilemma in western medical centers: the need to integrate modern western medicinal remedies with aspects of cultural that are good for the well-being of the patient, and the belief of the patient’s ability to recuperate. What we see is a clash, or lack of integration in the example of the story thereof. Lia, a Hmong child with a rare form of epilepsy, must enter the western hospital instead of the Laotian forest. In the forest she would seek out herbs to remedy the problems that beset her, but in the west she is forced to enter the western medical hospital without access to those remedies, which provided not only physical but spiritual comfort to those members of the Hmong culture. The herbs that are supposed to fix her spirit in the forest are not available in the western hospital. The Merced County hospital system clashes with Hmong animist traditions.
Cultural competence is a skill essential to acquire for healthcare providers, especially nurses. Cooperating effectively and understanding individuals with different backgrounds and traditions enhances the quality of health care provided by hospitals and other medical facilities. One of the many cultures that nurses and other health care providers encounter is the American Indian or Native American culture. There are hundreds of different American Indian Tribes, but their beliefs and values only differ slightly. The culture itself embodies nature. To American Indians, “The Earth is considered to be a living organism- the body of a higher individual, with a will and desire to be well. The Earth is periodically healthy and less healthy, just as human beings are” (Spector, 2009, p. 208). This is why their way of healing and symbolic items are holistic and from nature.
Certain religious groups reject westernized medicine, like the Amish. Yet, for the most part most religions allow their medicinal practices to work in tandem with westernized medicine. For example, First Nations people tend to have a very holistic view when it comes to their surroundings and medicine. Aboriginal traditional approaches to health and wellness include the use of sacred herbs like sage or tobacco and traditional healers/medicine (pg. 5, Singh, 2009). However, they will not reject help from professionally trained doctors and medical staff. Much like other religions, First Nations put a strong emphasis on family/community. Consensus or decision-making is fairly common for them. A practitioner or medical staff member must remember to respect ceremonial objects such as tobacco or traditional blankets, include immediate family members when making a treatment decision, and to accommodate spiritual practices. Normally, organ donation is accepted UNLESS the organ is being removed from someone who is not deceased. First Nations’ believe that their bo...
When you are sick you take medicine, but there are many remedies for the same problems. The use of herbal remedies traces back to the Chinese in the use of Traditional Chinese Medicine, as well by a compiled book in China written back more than 2,000 years ago (Wachtel-Galor & Benzie, 2011). Modern medicine has roots that are more recent in the development and production of synthesize drugs (Wachtel-Galor & Benzie, 2011). The old generations took herbal remedies to improve their health, but now as time and people, progressed modern medicine comes on top. Herbal and modern medicines have good and bad points, but one has qualities that are more effective.