Supernatural in Primitive Medicine

Supernatural in Primitive Medicine
In primitive medicine, the supernatural is involved in all aspect of disease and healing. Because disease and misfortune are attributed to supernatural agents, magic is essential to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease.

All events must have a cause visible or invisible.

Thus the disease for which there are no obvious immediate causes must be due to ghosts, spirits, gods, sorcery, witchcraft or the loss of one of the individual’s special “soul.”

Illness called for consultation with those have the power to control the supernatural agents of disease: the shaman, medicine man, wise man, diviner, witch-smeller, priests, chief, soul-catcher, or sorcerer.

A close examination of the roles and powers assigned to such figures reveals many specific differences, but for our purpose the general term “healer” will generally suffice.

However, we should note that most societies differentiate between healers and herbalists who dispense ordinary remedies and the shamans or priests like healers who can intercede with the spirits that affect, weather, harvest, hunting, warfare, conception, childbirth, disease and misfortune.

Although the shaman performs magical acts, including deliberate deceptions, she or he neither a fake nor a neurotic.

The shaman is as sincere as a modern physician or psychiatrists in the performance of healing rituals.

When sick, the shaman will undergo therapy with another shaman, despite, knowledge of all tricks of the trade.

For shaman, the cause of the disorder is more significant than the symptoms because the cause determines the manner of treatment, be it penicillin or exorcism.

Diagnostic aids may include a spirit medium, crystal gazing and divination.

Having performed the preliminary diagnostic tests, the healer conducts a complex ritual involving magic spells, incantations, the extraction of visible or invisible objects, or the capture and the return of the patient’s lost soul.

To drive out or confuse evil spirits, the shaman may give the patient a special disguise or a new name, offer attractive substitute targets, or prescribe noxious medicines to transform the patient onto an undesirable host.

The shaman may dispense powerful drugs but it is the ritual, with its attempts to compel the cooperation of supernatural powers, which is of prime importance to healer, patient and community.

Outsiders may see the healing ritual in terms of “magical” and “practical” elements, but for healer and patient there is no separation between the magical and empirical aspects of therapy.
Supernatural in Primitive Medicine