The unwritten history of medical treatment: Evidence for ritual-healers and their activities in the pre-literate past

Abstract

ObjectiveTo reveal the presence and activities of healers from funerary contexts. MaterialsEthnohistoric and ethnographic textual descriptions and the bioarchaeological record. MethodsA synthesis of human remains, grave contexts, and funerary objects. ConclusionsThe capacity to act as a “healer” forms part of the social identity of a diverse range of uniquely specialized individuals cross-culturally who also perform a variety of other roles associated with transcendent ideologies, beliefs, and religion. They are ambivalent, capable of doing both good and ill. They defend the health and well-being of the individual and the community but, using the same knowledge, are also implicated in attacks on individuals and groups within and outside their communities. This ambivalence, combined with a lack of defined institutional organization and the great diversity of medico-religious healers in the recent ethnographic past and historically, makes the identification of such individuals in the archaeological record controversial, but they are present. SignificanceNot only are healers identifiable in the archaeological record, but their practices disproportionately influence it, acting as a powerful complement to historical sources for the development of medicine and medical knowledge. LimitationsPublished literature is of variable detail, which means that healing practices and healers are under-appreciated and under-represented in reconstructions of past societies. Suggestions for Further ResearchApplication of archaeothanatological approaches to recording and synthesis of the funerary context with the remains of the deceased can be used to identify objects and practices used in healing that have been more recently superseded by scientific approaches to health.