Indigenous Knowledge of Animals, Minerals and Beverages Used as Medicines among the Tangkhul Nagas of Manipur

Abstract

Animal and its products have been an important means to successful adaptation of human throughout its evolutionary journey. Since prehistoric periods, their parts, and their products have been the source of human survival along with plant and its products. It also forms a basis for indigenous medical system and later for bio or modern medical system. Hence, before it vanishes completely from the memory of the people, the urgency to document this vast knowledge arises, as it is fast disappearing. Method: Field survey was conducted on 5 rural villages of this community, and data were obtained from 55 selected informants with the help of interview schedule. The informants include local herbalists, traditional and divine healers, cultivators, midwives, and they were all 50 years and above who were believed to be the only surviving age-group of people who still have the local medical knowledge. Result: 23 animal species and its products were reportedly used in the treatment of several diseases and ailments in the surveyed villages. These animal species belong to the classes of mammals (09), insect (03), avian (03), reptiles, amphibians, oligochaeta, malacostraca, gastropoda and chilopoda. Some of the most commonly treated diseases or ailments are burnt body, fever, mumps, measles, stone case etc. Conclusion: It was found that the use of animal and its products for medicines are no longer prevalent among the majority of the studied population, or for that matter even the knowledge itself is disappearing at a very fast pace from the general population. One may argue that it was the result of the introduction of ‘modern biomedicine’ which in fact has also been responsible on one side, on the other hand, majority of these animals have disappeared while others are continuously endangered due to unregulated and excessive hunting and clearing of their habitats. It is high time for the people including the government to realize the need to conserve animals and their habitats before it became something of the past.