History of Folk Medicine

People have been practicing folk medicine for centuries. In many countries and cultures it still thrives in its original and ancient forms. Folk medicine has a rich and unique history, even as it is modernized in many ways.

Function

• Folk medicine can use herbs, rituals, plants, ceremonies, animal parts, magic and witchcraft as a means of healing. Many tribes and cultures believe that illness and death are caused by spirits, gods or other forces.

Medicine Men

• Those who practice folk medicine may be called medicine men or shamans. They may recite incantations and use ancient formulas to drive away illness and cure both mental and physical ailments.

Religious Beliefs

• Folk medicine often incorporates religious elements and voodoo. The practices used to cure illness are often handed down through word of mouth from generation to generation.

Purification

• Many cultures, including Native Americans and South and Central Americans, perform purification ceremonies to ward off the evil eye. They hold festivals to cleanse the body and the soul of diseases and evil.

Beginning

• Folk medicine can be traced back as far as 3000 B.C. Hippocrates practiced folk medicine. Dr. D.C. Jarvis of Vermont popularized folk medicine in the United States in the 1950s in his book "Folk Medicine: A Vermont Doctor's Guide to Good Health."

Modern Folk Medicine

• Folk medicine has evolved and is today practiced by using many alternative, herbal and organic treatments and methods. The United States has lagged behind other countries in herbal medicine, but it is catching on and catching up.