I do fr think about this though, I know how to wash my hands, so if I get magically transported back in time, I could probably be a doctor and do ok.
You don’t need to be a doctor today to that … just call yourself a ‘Faith Healer’, ‘Shaman’ or ‘Medicine Person’ … don’t need no fancy institution or organization to get those credentials.
I’m Indigenous in Canada and human gullibility, taking advantage of people and charlatanism is not something that Indigenous people are immune to … we have our problems with nutjobs who pretend they are more powerful than anyone else for one reason or another. We have our religious leaders who think they have more power than anyone else just because they want to.
I once met a traditional ‘Shaman’ at a Pow Wow who did a whole ceremony in front of people telling them how great he was and how his brews, herbs and remedies and chants and singing could cure anything … he even claimed he could cure cancer. I talked to him for a while and you’d think he was genuine but when it came to receiving his medicine bundle I asked him how much and he said ‘how much is your health worth to you?’ … I immediately thought that was a fantastic sales pitch, gave him $20 and told everyone I met that he was just another fraud. A day later he appeared in the local paper saying he had healed a woman with cancer … the woman died a few months later and we never heard from this faith healer again.
Just one question - why’d you give him 20$?
It’s an unwritten rule at Pow Wows and traditional gatherings when you meet or greet performers, singers, dancers, traditional people, elders … especially if they have something to sell or a product to push … you give them money either to buy something or to offer a donation of sorts to support them. It’s also why I talked to them, to try to figure out how genuine they are.
I gave the supposed traditional person something out of protocol but I didn’t want to give too much or too little. At the same event, I bought craftwork, mocassins and artwork and spent about $200-$300 on other people.
As a rule, if you ever attend a Native event like a Pow Wow, bring about $100 in small denominations in cash and use it to buy food, drinks, crafts and ask if and where you can donate or give contributions to singers, dancers who are performing. If you aren’t sure what to do, just ask an organizer, they are always willing to give information. If you can spend more, the better … it’s how all these events are able to be maintained.
EDIT: I was rereading this and realized that $100 is a bit generous for an event like this and there might be people who don’t have that kind of money to spend (including myself). Spend $5, $10, or as much as you can give if you can. I usually attend about two or three Pow Wows a year and spend on average about $100 at each (if I can afford it) usually with friends and family or people they know just to help them out. The main reason for giving money in donations is that all these performers and Pow Wow people spend a fortune on their regalia (outfits - they are not costumes!), taking time to practice and learn and teach and in travelling to many events during the year. And the food vendors also spend a lot of money on being able to attend these events.
That’s an interesting bit of reading about a culture I know very likely about. Ty!
Well, they did say that they thought his sales pitch was fantastic…
You don’t need to be a doctor today to that … just call yourself a ‘Faith Healer’, ‘Shaman’ or ‘Medicine Person’ … don’t need no fancy institution or organization to get those credentials.
The US just elected one as president… for the second time. Promised to cure all of the country’s ills… again.
Explanation: Medieval Western European (“Frankish”) medicine was somewhat… lacking. Please enjoy this anecdote from an Arab noble during the Crusades as way of example:
The lord of al-Munaytirah wrote to my uncle asking him to dispatch a physician to treat certain sick persons among his people. My uncle sent him a Christian physician named Thabit. Thabit was absent but ten days when be returned. So we said to him, “How quickly has thou healed thy patients!” He said:
They brought before me a knight in whose leg an abscess had grown; and a woman afflicted with imbecility. To the knight I applied a small poultice until the abscess opened and became well; and the woman I put on diet and made her humor wet. Then a Frankish physician came to them and said, “This man knows nothing about treating them.” He then said to the knight, “Which wouldst thou prefer, living with one leg or dying with two?” The latter replied, “Living with one leg.” The physician said, “Bring me a strong knight and a sharp ax.” A knight came with the ax. And I was standing by. Then the physician laid the leg of the patient on a block of wood and bade the knight strike his leg with the ax and chop it off at one blow. Accordingly he struck it-while I was looking on-one blow, but the leg was not severed. He dealt another blow, upon which the marrow of the leg flowed out and the patient died on the spot. He then examined the woman and said, “This is a woman in whose head there is a devil which has possessed her. Shave off her hair.” Accordingly they shaved it off and the woman began once more to cat their ordinary diet-garlic and mustard. Her imbecility took a turn for the worse. The physician then said, “The devil has penetrated through her head.” He therefore took a razor, made a deep cruciform incision on it, peeled off the skin at the middle of the incision until the bone of the skull was exposed and rubbed it with salt. The woman also expired instantly. Thereupon I asked them whether my services were needed any longer, and when they replied in the negative I returned home, having learned of their medicine what I knew not before.
For fairness’s sake, the same author relates another story of Frankish medicine of the period, much more positive (though less relevant to the meme)
spoiler
I have, however, witnessed a case of their medicine which was quite different from that.
The king of the Franks bad for treasurer a knight named Bernard, who (may Allah’s curse be upon him!) was one of the most accursed and wicked among the Franks. A horse kicked him in the leg, which was subsequently infected and which opened in fourteen different places. Every time one of these cuts would close in one place, another would open in ancther place. All this happened while I was praying for his perdition. Then came to him a Frankish physician and removed from the leg all the ointments which were on it and began to wasb it with very strong vinegar. By this treatment all the cuts were healed and the man became well again. He was up again like a devil. Another case illustrating their curious medicine is the following: In Shayzar we had an artisan named abu-al-Fath, who had a boy whose neck was afflicted with scrofula. Every time a part of it would close, another part would open. This man happened to go to Antioch on business of his, accompanied by his son. A Frank noticed the boy and asked his father about him. Abu-al-Fath replied, “This is my son.” The Frank said to him, 'Wilt thou swear by thy religion that if I prescribe to you a medicine which will cure thy boy, thou wilt charge nobody fees for prescribing it thyself? In that case, I shall prescribe to you a medicine which will cure the boy." The man took the oath and the Frank said:
Take uncrushed leaves of glasswort, burn them, then soak the ashes in olive oil and sharp vinegar. Treat the scrofula with them until the spot on which it is growing is eaten up. Then take burnt lead, soak it in ghee butter and treat him with it. That will cure him.
The father treated the boy accordingly, and the boy was cured. The sores closed and the boy returned to his normal condition of health.
I have myself treated with this medicine many who were afflicted with such disease, and the treatment was successful in removing the cause of the complaint.
It’s stories like these, along with coffee and indoor plumbing, that make me glad I live today and not in the past.
Pfft, one at a time? Amatuer.
https://apnews.com/article/trump-health-communications-cdc-hhs-fda-1eeca64c1ccc324b31b779a86d3999a4
I doubt that. Dying patients were not recieved well. See: https://youtu.be/w2f_jajCAsU
