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POPULAR MEDICINE
EDUCATIONAL ROUTE
I. MEDICINAL PLANTS
AND THEIR USE
II. THE APPLIED ARTS
IN THE FIELD OF MEDICINAL PLANTS:
BOTANICAL ILLUSTRATIONS
ON PAPER, CERAMIC AND GLASS
III. THE SPICE ROUTES
IV. THE DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE
RESERVATIONS
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Popular medicine: the origins
Popular medicine
considers the body, psyche and behaviour of the individual as indivisible. The Greek word
pharmakon
meant a remedy for both the
body
and
spirit
. A
pharmakon
was also an incantation or spell and even
music
and
poetry
were thought of as
pharmaka
for the spirit. An
illness
is viewed as something extraneous to man, therefore we cannot control it, just eliminate it, for example, bacteria and viruses are now seen as causes of
sickness
but in
popular medicine
they were the sickness itself. All the theories existing in
popular medical practice
are based on experience. The remedies prepared using
medicinal plants
have been known since prehistory and they were generally prepared by women.
While women were busy providing sustenance to the community by gathering plant roots and fruit, men were out hunting and fishing. Women therefore acquired a vast body of plant-related knowledge that was handed down from mother to daughter, and what remains of this today is conserved by individual communities and is brought together in
plant-related practices
.
For
cures
women first implemented household remedies but when these proved ineffective they would turn to "experts", that is to say
magical healers
, sorcerers and wizards who healed through the use of rituals, charms and prayers. True healers had special characteristics, for instance, they were seven-month babies or the mothers of twins, or they came from families that were traditionally linked with magic and the ability to heal. Such figures are still evident in some rural communities.
Popular medicine
survived the establishment of
official medicine
at the start of the thirteenth century and the use of
herbal medicines
continued for many centuries.
POPULAR MEDICINE >>
Healing witches >>
Aconite >>
Thorn apple >>
Belladonna >>
HERBS AND MAGIC >>
Klamath weed >>
Mandrake >>
MONASTIC MEDICINE >>
WRITTEN SOURCES >>
PHARMACOLOGY >>