Abstract
With the increased acceptance of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) within society, new research reflects deeper folk health histories beyond formal medical spaces. The contested relationships between formal and informal medicine have deep provenance and as scientific medicine began to professionalise in the 19th century, lay health knowledges were simultaneously absorbed and disempowered (Porter 1997). In particular, the ‘medical gaze’ and the responses of informal medicine to this gaze were framed around themes of power, regulation, authenticity and narrative reputation. These responses were emplaced and mobile; enacted within multiple settings by multiple agents and structures over time. The work is drawn from secondary material from Ireland, which identify more indigenous narratives of health and act as potential sources for medical humanities. While assumptions have been made as to the place of folk-medicine being essentially rural, evidence will be presented which shows a more complex network of health beliefs and practices. The narratives of informal practice and folk-medicine drawn from evidence from Ireland point to more fluid and hybrid relations with formal medicine and suggest that the complementary nature of the two models reflected wider cultural debates and models of belief (Del Casino Jnr., Health & Place 10:59-73, 2004).
Highlights
Informal health historiesIn the library at Bailieborough, County Cavan, Ireland, there is a small ring-bound folder in the local studies section which contains a list of folk healers with a specific listing of which ‘cures’ they can perform
While the clinical qualifications and ability of those with the ‘cure’ may not withstand deeper biomedical scrutiny, what matters more is the sense of a long narrative connection between folk medicine, health cure and their co-presence within what health geographers refer to as therapeutic landscapes (Wilson 2003; Williams 2007)
This relationship among folk medicine narratives, curative practices and place form the basis of its potential interest for medical humanities research and this paper will discuss these in relation to historical health practices on the island of Ireland (Foley 2010)
Summary
‘Go on to filling station, take left turn, and left again past school, into narrow lane, half mile, lane on right. While the clinical qualifications and ability of those with the ‘cure’ may not withstand deeper biomedical scrutiny, what matters more is the sense of a long narrative connection between folk medicine, health cure and their co-presence within what health geographers refer to as therapeutic landscapes (Wilson 2003; Williams 2007). This relationship among folk medicine narratives, curative practices and place form the basis of its potential interest for medical humanities research and this paper will discuss these in relation to historical health practices on the island of Ireland (Foley 2010). In looking at a range of narratives and themes that sees the practices of folk medicine as having an interdisciplinary intent, the ongoing braiding of multiple strands of medical practice remains a central tenet
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