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Title: Religion and Healing Ethnomedicine and Curers Ethnomedicine


1
Religion and Healing
  • Ethnomedicine and Curers

2
Ethnomedicine as a Specific Discipline
  • Ethnomedicine is the study of the beliefs and
    practices concerning illness in different human
    populations.
  • It observes and describes hygienic, preventive
    and healing practices, also taking into account
    temporal and spatial references.

3
  • Ever since the most ancient times, human beings
    have found remedies within their habitat, and
    have adopted different therapeutic strategies
    depending both upon climatic, pedological,
    phytogeographic and faunal characteristics, and
    upon peculiar cultural and socio-structural
    typologies.

4
  • Every human population, in every time, builds a
    specific "view of the world" through its own
    culture.
  • From this model of the world stem specific views
    of the body and of health and illness.
  • From peculiar perceptions of the body, of
    anatomy, physiology, biology, of the position of
    human beings within the world and of what is
    normal and what is pathological, every culture
    frames and passes on a specific knowledge, that
    is put into practice both in everyday life and in
    institutional circumstances.

5
  • From this knowledge stems the definition of what
    is, and what is not, pathological
  • the different hypothesis on the causes of
    illnesses (aetiology)
  • the classification of illnesses (nosology)
  • and the descriptions of illnesses themselves.
  • Ethnomedicine investigates this dynamic, complex
    and fluid reality, and the deep relativity of
    body descriptions.

6
Magic and Religion
  • Those practices that we might call "magic" have
    differing relationships to religion.
  • Some, such as baseball practices, are not based
    on any belief system whatsoever. Others, such as
    Trobriand spells, do imply beliefs in spirits but
    little else.
  • Still other practices, such as healing in Japan,
    Venezuela, and Malaya or among the Cuna of
    Panama, draw on extensive bodies of knowledge
    about how spirits work.

7
  • In all cases some of the older insights by Frazer
    and Malinowski about the logic and functions of
    magic can still help us understand why people are
    attracted to certain practices.
  • Malinowski's notion that all people use science
    plus magic, with the latter added on to the
    former, continues to make sense.
  • The forms of magic differ greatly memorized
    spells, possession and exorcism, narratives about
    creation or battles, or about God or the
    effectiveness of medicine.

8
  • But each such practice gives the person a sense
    of control, or understanding, or certainty
    greater than what was enjoyed before the event.
  • Each practice also seems to reduce anxiety
    (although once it is relied on, its absence may
    create anxiety).
  • These features of "magical" practices all concern
    their effects.
  • To understand their contents and why Balinese,
    Yanomamö, and Serpent Handlers do things
    differently, we have explored the linkages
    between each practice and the dominant forms and
    motifs of the culture in which it is found.

9
  • Institutions built on notions of magic can take
    on functions of healing, religion, and even
    community.
  • Their practices can provide confidence insofar as
    they fit general cultural expectations, and this
    confidence and assurance can cause physical
    changes in a patient.
  • For better or worse, they can furnish the basis
    for close-knit relationships in a disorganized
    world.
  • Far from being merely a set of mistaken ideas,
    magic continues to be a powerful force in the
    real world.

10
Religion and Medicine
  • In the beginning, religion and healing were
    inseparable.
  • In some societies, the priest and physician were
    one and the same person, administering spiritual
    and physical healing with divine sanction.
  • The advent of scientific medicine in the middle
    of the 19th century separated medicine from
    religion nearly completely.

11
  • A century later, the direct interrelationship
    between the body and mind became firmly
    established, although psychosomatic medicine had
    already been described in the 12th century by
    Moses Maimonides.
  • Over the past several decades, there has been a
    broad revival of interest in spiritual healing
    and religious practice and health.
  • The return to spirituality and religion by
    patients as an adjunct to their physical healing
    is no longer ignored by physicians and other
    caregivers.
  • In a sense, religion can be considered a form of
    complementary or supplementary therapy.

12
  • At the culmination of a century of scientific
    discovery and medical progress, physicians and
    their patients are more open to a spiritual
    direction and alternative/complementary forms of
    medicine.
  • Despite progress in cancer therapy, for example,
    complementary forms of treatment are adopted by
    about half the patients undergoing conventional
    cancer therapy, often from an early stage of
    their illness.
  • Contrary to stereotypes, patients who seek
    unproven methods tend to be well educated,
    upper-middle class, and not necessarily
    terminally ill or even beyond hope of cure or
    remission by conventional treatments.

13
  • Why do people seek out alternative/ complementary
    therapies, including religion and spirituality?
  • Patients may be discouraged and in despair about
    the realities of conventional treatment.
  • Fear, adverse effects, previous negative
    experiences, and a desire by the patient for more
    supportive care are other reasons.
  • People may be unhappy with the impersonal
    technology of modern medicine and seek to
    emphasize self-care and whole-body fitness
    somatic, mental, and spiritual.

14
  • Studies on the influence of religion and
    spirituality on health, illness, and well-being
    confirm the presence of spiritual and religious
    beliefs in medical practice.
  • In 1967, JAMA created a medicine and religion
    department and has since periodically published
    review articles on medicine and religion and on
    religion and spirituality in medicine.
  • Statistically significant associations between
    religious belief and health outcomes have been
    reported for a variety of diseases in systematic
    reviews and meta-analyses.
  • Much of the research suggests that an active
    religious commitment is "beneficial for
    preventing mental and physical illness, improving
    recovery and enhancing the ability to cope with
    illness."

15
History of Ethnomedical Studies
  • From historical and ethnographical beginnings,
    during the last years ethnomedicine has turned
    its attention to laboratory research, also
    involving biomedicine and pharmacology.
  • This has been made possible also by the auspices
    and the activities of the World Health
    Organization in fact, the Traditional Medicine
    Progra of WHO was precisely thought as an answer
    to a renewed interest for popular therapies and
    remedies, in view of their possible
    identification and utilization within national
    health services.

16
  • During the International Conference on Primary
    Health Care of 1978, the Alma Ata Declaration
    built the historical basis of the official
    politics of the Traditional Medicine Program,
    thus opening a dialogue between two distinct
    systems of health assistance the traditional and
    the modern one.
  • However, a condition was posed support to
    traditional medicines, healers and remedies is to
    be given only to those practices that, on the
    basis of medical-scientific testing, are proved
    to be safe and effective.

17
  • The Traditional Medicine Program has been
    developed through a series of resolutions,
    adopted from the World Health Assembly and the
    Regional Committees of WHO.
  • In 1987 the 40th World Health Assembly urged the
    member States to promote integrated programs on
    medical plants and their preparation, cultivation
    and conservation.
  • In 1988, during the 41st World Health Assembly,
    the Chiang Mai Resolution was centered on the
    theme "Saving lives by saving plants" it
    recognized traditional medicines as an essential
    element of cure.

18
  • In 1989 (42nd World Health Assembly) the
    inventory of traditional practices in different
    countries was encouraged.
  • In 1991, during the 44th World Health Assembly,
    the WHA44.34 resolution was accepted.
  • It was bent on stimulating cooperation between
    traditional healers and the professionals of
    modern health assistance, with special regard to
    the use of traditional remedies which have been
    scientifically validated and proved safe and
    effective.
  • The resolution aimed at the reduction of national
    pharmaceutical expenses.
  • In October 1991 the Chinese Government, supported
    by WHO, financed and organized a World Conference
    on Traditional Medicine.
  • The Conference proposed four goals the
    foundation of a world-wide association for
    academic exchanges the training of health
    workers the designation of the 22nd of October
    as World Day of Traditional Medicine the
    foundation of an international journal.

19
Religion and Energy Healing
  • Throughout history, the healing power of touch
    has been recognized and has played a significant
    role in every religion and culture.
  • The founder or key figure of the religion is
    often the principal source of the healings.
  • From its beginnings, Hebrew religion has laid
    great stress on health and on healing.

20
  • This is expressed in Exodus 1526, when God tells
    Moses, I am the Lord that healeth thee.
  • The great prophets, Elijah and Elisha were
    acknowledged as healers.
  • Healing in fact, was expected of all true
    prophets and was often the sign that their
    calling was genuinely from God.
  • Jesus inherited this healing background and took
    it to higher levels.
  • Not only was Christ a renowned healer, he
    commissioned the Apostles to heal the sick
    (Luke 109).
  • The first generation of Christians was primarily
    a healing community.

21
  • Healing is a key part of the revelation given to
    Muhammad in the Quran.
  • Islamic tradition, in both the Sunni and Shia
    branches, attributes several dramatic healings to
    Muhammad.
  • Its not just the major religions that have
    expressed this deep connection with personal
    healing.
  • Cultures in Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the
    Americas have realized the relationship of curing
    the body to the profound powers of the universe.
  • Each culture explored and utilized this power
    from within the framework of its own knowledge
    and traditions. 

22
  • This powerful healing energy has been known in
    China and India for over five thousand years.
  • The Chinese call it chi or qi, while the Hindu
    use terms such as maya and prana.
  • The Japanese call it ki.
  • North American Indians refer to it as medicine.
  • The Melanese call it mana.
  • !Kung people of the Kalahari Desert call it num.
  • The Incas had their famous healing stone at Machu
    Picchu.
  • In his book Future Science, John White lists
    ninety-seven different cultures, each of which
    has its own name to refer to healing energy.

23
  • This universal healing energy benefits every
    person regardless of his or hers religious
    beliefs.
  • The experience of having healing energy coursing
    through the hands is profound, humbling, and
    uplifting.
  • No philosophy, no doctrine, no dogma stands in
    anyones way of experiencing this healing energy
    and that is as it should be.

24
  • With a better understanding of holistic health
    emerging in Western medicine, Reiki has become a
    valuable tool for improving mind/body awareness.
  • This is why the conscious caregiver uses Reiki as
    a proven healing technique in its own right  as
    well as to enhance all other healing modalities.

25
Reiki
  • Universal life-force energy is naturally
    circulating throughout a persons body.
  • A Reiki treatment augments a strong , powerful
    flow of this energy to sustain health and
    vitality.
  • This energy relaxes muscles, speeds digestion,
    stabilizes blood pressure and blood sugar, calms
    a racing pulse, stimulates the immune system, and
    relieves pain.

26
Trance, Possession, and Healing
  • Healing practices often turn on the idea that a
    spirit has possessed the patient and is causing
    the illness.
  • The cure then involves putting the patient (or
    sometimes a curer) into a trance state,
    investigating the reasons for the spirit's
    actions, and driving out the spirit (or
    exorcising the patient).

27
Afro-Brazilian Trances
  • In Brazil today, healers draw on Afro-Brazilian
    religion traditions to carry out their art.
  • Afro-Brazilian religions, variously called
    "Candomble' "Umbanda' or "Macumba" (and related
    to Haitian "Voudun" and Cuban "Santeria"),
    developed when people living in West Africa were
    forcibly brought to the Americas as slaves.

28
  • Forced to conceal their own religious ideas and
    practices, they developed a blend that appeared
    Catholic but contained elements of West African
    religion.
  • Today these traditions have changed in various
    directions, some emphasizing African sources,
    others Native American elements, still others the
    ties with Catholicism and with European
    Spiritism.

29
  • In the Brazilian trance-healing practices called
    Macumba, trance is employed in varied settings to
    aid in healing.
  • In sessions involving professional mediums,
    specialists sit in a separate, cordoned-off part
    of a room.
  • They are dressed in white and are already in a
    trance.
  • They each have special "spirit familiars" with
    whom they communicate.

30
  • Patients deliver to the staff slips of paper
    containing their questions usually the questions
    are about their own illnesses.
  • The mediums then ask for answers from their
    spirit familiars and relay these answers back
    through the staff.
  • These sessions are calm, although sometimes a
    supplicant will slip into trance, and in such
    cases he or she may be approached about becoming
    a medium.

31
  • A second type of session involves mass trances.
  • Dozens or hundreds of people gather together for
    evenings of trance, dancing and music, and
    consultation.
  • These large-scale sessions also employ mediums,
    but they walk and dance around on the floor,
    mingling with other people who wish to attend.
  • Rather than having personal spirit familiars, all
    the mediums cycle together through several
    standard spirit types during the evening.
  • Each type represents both a familiar cultural
    figure of the Brazilian environment and a kind of
    emotion.

32
  • When the mediums are possessed by the "old black
    slave" spirit, they sit, smoking pipes, and
    dispense this old man's wisdom to those attending
    (who are often relatives or friends).
  • When they take on the flashily dressed woman
    called Pomba Gira, they are seductive and loose,
    enjoying this break from normal behavioral
    restrictions.
  • When they are the child they scamper about eating
    candy.
  • (There is also an Amazonian equivalent of these
    sessions in which Indians act the role of whites,
    drink champagne, and act terribly refined.)

33
Shared Healing in Southern Africa
  • The Kung people living in southern Africa once
    lived entirely from gathering and some hunting.
  • The great variability of rainfall and thus food
    in their lands led them to develop norms of
    sharing and exchange.
  • Sharing distributes risk and gives people a
    source of food during periods of drought and
    scarcity.

34
  • Healing follows similar lines of thought.
  • The Kung heal those who have fallen ill by
    assembling in a group at night around a fire and
    dancing to reach a trance-like state of
    transcendence called kai reached by tapping
    into the energy, num, that everyone has in the
    pits of their stomachs.
  • About half of the men tap this energy, and about
    one-third of the women.
  • (They tend to be people whose parents did so.
    Larger percentages try, and somewhat smaller
    percentages become active healers.)

35
  • Num energy is not a limited good, but is given by
    God to individuals and benefits everyone in the
    group when people tap it.
  • Reaching the state of kai can be dangerous and
    painful.
  • An older healer described the feeling in terms of
    death and rebirth.
  • Your heart stops. You're dead. Your thoughts are
    nothing. You breathe with difficulty. You see
    things, num things. You see spirits killing
    people. You smell burning, rotten flesh. Then you
    heal you pull sickness out. You heal, heal, heal.
    Then you live. Your eyeballs clear and you see
    people clearly. (Katz 1982, 45).

36
  • When your own num has begun to boil others feel
    it and they, too, begin to dance.
  • Healing takes place in three stages.
  • The healer, once his or her num is boiling, can
    see the num in other healers and the spirits
    causing illness.
  • Then the healer pulls out the sickness, laying
    hands on the ill person to put num in and draw
    out illness, and then shaking the illness out
    into the darkness.
  • The healer begins to sweat as his num boils this
    sweat is the num and he or she rubs it into the
    patient to forcibly expel the illness (Katz 1982,
    106-108).

37
  • Then the healer, in a heroic confrontation, does
    battle with spirits and gods.
  • Usually the illness has been caused by spirits of
    the dead.
  • Sometimes they have specific complaints about the
    living person they are bothering sometimes they
    are just looking to stir up trouble.
  • But they are also messengers from the great god,
    Gao Na, a capricious god who may destroy humans
    should he find them annoying.

38
  • Healers may argue with the spirits or even
    journey to the god's home.
  • Others at the dance hear one side of a dialogue
    between the healer and the spirits or god, a
    dialogue of cajoling or threatening.
  • The healer may hurl insults at the spirits or
    reason gently with them, telling them that they
    gain nothing from bothering humans.
  • Kung trance-healing is collective in spirit and
    in practice because the source of healing power,
    the num energy, is more powerful the more it is
    shared.

39
Kung healing dance at dawn, Botswana. (COURTESY
OF RICHARD KATZ, BOILING ENERGY, p.33.)
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