Granny woman on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
A folk healer is an unlicensed person who practices the art of healing using traditional practices,
A folk healer is an unlicensed person who practices the art of healing using traditional practices, herbal remedies
Herbal medicine (also herbalism) is the study of pharmacognosy and the use of medicinal plants, which are a basis of traditional medicine. With worldwide research into pharmacology, some herbal medicines have been translated into modern remedies ...
and the power of suggestion.
The healer may be a highly trained person who pursues their specialties, learning by study, observation and imitation. In some cultures a healer might be considered to be a person who has inherited the "gift" of healing from his or her parent. The ability to set bones or the power to stop bleeding may be thought of as hereditary powers.
Granny women
Granny women are purported to behealers
Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or evidence from clinical trials. Complementary medicine (CM), complementary and al ...
and midwives
A midwife is a health professional who cares for mothers and newborns around childbirth, a specialization known as midwifery.
The education and training for a midwife concentrates extensively on the care of women throughout their lifespan; co ...
in Southern Appalachia and the Ozarks
The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the extreme southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover a significant port ...
, claimed by a few academics as practicing from the 1880s to the 1930s. They are theorized to be usually elder women in the community and may have been the only practitioners of health care in the poor rural areas of Southern Appalachia. They are often thought not to have expected or received payment, and were respected as authorities on herbal healing and childbirth. They are mentioned by John C. Campbell in ''The Southern Highlander and His Homeland'':
Alleged cancer healing
Folk medicine in Appalachia has historically included nontraditional methods of treatingskin cancer
Skin cancers are cancers that arise from the skin. They are due to the development of abnormal cells that have the ability to invade or spread to other parts of the body. There are three main types of skin cancers: basal-cell skin cancer (BCC) ...
. In the early 1900s, for example, a Virginian man named Thomas Rauleigh Carter became renowned for his prowess in healing skin cancer in addition to his midwifery. Although he was a minister, his treatments focused on the application or ingestion of specific herbs and plants rather than on faith in a higher power. Carter kept his formula secret, even from his immediate family, and treated many people for lesions and skin conditions believed to be cancerous.
See also
*Cunning folk
Cunning folk, also known as folk healers or wise folk, were practitioners of folk medicine, helpful folk magic and divination in Europe from the Middle Ages until the 20th century. Their practices were known as the cunning craft. Their services a ...
* White witch
Jadis is the main antagonist of ''The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'' (1950) and ''The Magician's Nephew'' (1955) in C. S. Lewis's series, ''The Chronicles of Narnia''. She is commonly referred to as the White Witch in ''The Lion, the Witch and ...
* Folk medicine
Traditional medicine (also known as indigenous medicine or folk medicine) comprises medical aspects of traditional knowledge that developed over generations within the folk beliefs of various societies, including indigenous peoples, before the ...
* Faith healing
Faith healing is the practice of prayer and gestures (such as laying on of hands) that are believed by some to elicit divine intervention in spiritual and physical healing, especially the Christian practice. Believers assert that the healing ...
* Home remedy
Traditional medicine (also known as indigenous medicine or folk medicine) comprises medical aspects of traditional knowledge that developed over generations within the folk beliefs of various societies, including indigenous peoples, before the ...
* Alternative medicine
* Kitchen witch
A kitchen witch, sometimes called a cottage witch is a homemade poppet or doll resembling a stereotypical witch or crone displayed in residential kitchens as a good luck charm and to ward off bad spirits.
History
There is some debate over where t ...
* Witcher (mythology)
In Slavic mythology, a vidmak
( be, вядзьмак, вядзьмар;
bg, вещер;
hr, vještac;
cz, vědmák;
mk, вештер;
pl, wiedźmak;
russian: ведьмак;
sr, вештац;
uk, відьмак)
is a warlock or male witc ...
* Curandero
A ''curandero'' (, healer; f. , also spelled , , f. ) is a traditional native healer or shaman found primarily in Latin America and also in the United States. A curandero is a specialist in traditional medicine whose practice can either contr ...
* Traditional healers of Southern Africa
Traditional healers of Southern Africa are practitioners of traditional African medicine in Southern Africa. They fulfill different social and political roles in the community, including divination, healing physical, emotional and spiritual ...
* Medicine man
A medicine man or medicine woman is a traditional healer and spiritual leader who serves a community of Indigenous people of the Americas. Individual cultures have their own names, in their respective languages, for spiritual healers and cerem ...
* Witch doctor
A witch doctor (also spelled witch-doctor) was originally a type of healer who treated ailments believed to be caused by witchcraft. The term is now more commonly used to refer to healers, particularly in regions which use traditional healing ...
References
Sources
* Keith Thomas, ''Religion and the Decline of Magic'' (1971), p. 534. *Ryan Stark, ''Rhetoric, Science, and Magic in Seventeenth-Century England'' (2009), 123-27. *Anthony P. Cavender. ''Folk Medicine in Southern Appalachia'' (2003). {{Authority control * Medical anthropology Magic (supernatural) Society of Appalachia Midwifery *