PRIMITIVE
MEDICINE
Wherever humans have formed social groups, some
individuals have taken the role of the healer, responsible for preventing
disease and curing the sick. Magic and the use of charms, spells, and
incantations frequently were employed. Signatures-- such as a lion's heart, to
be eaten for courage, or plants with leaves 
resembling body organs, to be used to cure
disorders of that organ--were used worldwide. Throughout the ages, shamans and
medicine men have discovered valuable information that then was handed down
from generation to generation. If possible, the information was kept within the
priesthood. Much essential health information escaped, however, to become part
of common lore. Therapies for illnesses were more easily kept within the bounds
of the priesthood. As recently as the 18th century, William
Withering, a British physician, obtained information about digitalis, a
compound obtained from the foxglove plant and one of the most important drugs
used today, from an English witch. Morphine, quinine, ephedrine, and rauwolfia,
all used today, come from ancient, pre-scientific lore. Primitive medicine men
learned to set fractures; they even performed such complex procedures as
trephination--boring holes in the skull to treat disease. Throughout recorded
history, the rational and the magical approaches have existed side by side.
The proof from Rep. Of Gabonaise,
a medicine man
with interesting hairstyle
The letter with the “masques of medicine man”
stamps was sent from Republic of Ivory Coast to Bas-Rhein
Masks represent cheerful spirits invoked to aid
patient’s recovery.
