Folk Medicine and the Impact on Modern Medicine
Recently, studies of folklore continue being an interesting topic for many scholars. Examples of Folklore include songs, art, stories, myths and medicine. Medicine being one of the most important, since the importance of keeping a cultural based is essential to many Native Americans, who continue being impacted with today’s medical era. Today, modern medicine has been the hope for many ill patients. People have more access to different types of medicine; including medicine for minor headache, stomachache or even stress. However, it has not always been this way, especially for Native Americans who lived in places like the Appalachia. Folklore Medicine is a tradition that shares ideas and common …show more content…
In fact, these misinterpretations are uninformed opinions, since Appalachian folks did not have access to other alternative medication and were pushed to find solution for their own problems. In the encyclopedia of Folk Medicine, it suggested that “The answer lies in the eye of the beholder: to some it is an old granny with chicken soup stories, to others it is a heap of medical customs, taboos, superstitions and sometimes plain, sheer ignorance” (Collins, Folk Medicine). Folk medicine is similar to herbal medicine and what is also known today as alternative medicine. Another modern term for Folk medicine is traditional medicine. In the book of Herbal Medicine, mentions the concept of herbal medicine and the introduction to its history. According to this book, traditional medicine is “The knowledge, skills and practices based on the theories, beliefs and experiences indigenous to different cultures, used in the maintenance of health and in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness” (Wachtel-Galor, World Health Organization,). In the introduction to the book “Folk Medicine in Southern Appalachia” mentions how in the Southern Appalachian folk medicine did not obtain interest until the nineteenth century. When the idea of folk medicine was seen as a separated world from the rest of the country. “For some, Appalachia was a place frozen in time,” a …show more content…
He also mentions how developing nations receive their health care from traditional or indigenous health system. Which adds to the ideas of how important folk medicine was in the past, for example in places such as the Appalachia mountains, where they used remedies and herbal medicine to cure their
Recently, studies of folklore continue being an interesting topic for many scholars. Examples of Folklore include songs, art, stories, myths and medicine. Medicine being one of the most important, since the importance of keeping a cultural based is essential to many Native Americans, who continue being impacted with today’s medical era. Today, modern medicine has been the hope for many ill patients. People have more access to different types of medicine; including medicine for minor headache, stomachache or even stress. However, it has not always been this way, especially for Native Americans who lived in places like the Appalachia. Folklore Medicine is a tradition that shares ideas and common …show more content…
In fact, these misinterpretations are uninformed opinions, since Appalachian folks did not have access to other alternative medication and were pushed to find solution for their own problems. In the encyclopedia of Folk Medicine, it suggested that “The answer lies in the eye of the beholder: to some it is an old granny with chicken soup stories, to others it is a heap of medical customs, taboos, superstitions and sometimes plain, sheer ignorance” (Collins, Folk Medicine). Folk medicine is similar to herbal medicine and what is also known today as alternative medicine. Another modern term for Folk medicine is traditional medicine. In the book of Herbal Medicine, mentions the concept of herbal medicine and the introduction to its history. According to this book, traditional medicine is “The knowledge, skills and practices based on the theories, beliefs and experiences indigenous to different cultures, used in the maintenance of health and in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness” (Wachtel-Galor, World Health Organization,). In the introduction to the book “Folk Medicine in Southern Appalachia” mentions how in the Southern Appalachian folk medicine did not obtain interest until the nineteenth century. When the idea of folk medicine was seen as a separated world from the rest of the country. “For some, Appalachia was a place frozen in time,” a …show more content…
He also mentions how developing nations receive their health care from traditional or indigenous health system. Which adds to the ideas of how important folk medicine was in the past, for example in places such as the Appalachia mountains, where they used remedies and herbal medicine to cure their