Cherokee Ethnomedical System

1
Cherokee Ethnomedical System

• Causation, Practitioners, Diagnosis, Therapy

2
Disease causation

• Most Cherokee diseases were considered caused by
  supernatural forces or human agents. Disease and
  death were considered unnatural and caused by
  animal (or other) spirits, ghosts, or types of
  witches.

3
Spirits

• The Cherokee had a large array of spirits that
  interacted with them on a continuous basis.
  Spirits are not necessarily seen as benevolent or
  malevolent. The same spirit that sends a disease
  one time may help overcome a rival spirit another
  time. But a spirit will rarely be called upon to
  cure a disease that it has caused.

4

• Spirits can inflict disease or be prevailed upon
  by a human agent such, as a witch, to cause
  illness. The predominant view was that if it was
  the spirit that has caused a disease (without the
  intervention of a human agent), then it was the
  due to the actions of the inflicted that caused
  the spirits to act, it was rarely an act of
  malevolence on the part of the spirit.

5
Types of Spirits

• The Sun rarely causes diseases (possibly
  headaches and blisters), but is often called upon
  to aid in a cure and addressed in prayers when
  collecting plants.

6
Fire

• Fire rarely causes diseases (toothache from
  throwing chewed food on the fire, itchy genitals
  from urinating on the embers), but, like the sun,
  is evoked during a cure. Instances for evoking
  the fire spirit would be diseases caused by
  cold-blooded animals (turtles, snakes, or fish)
  or by frost or cold. An infusion can also be
  strengthened by dropping four or seven live coals
  into it. The fire spirit may also be invoked to
  take back the pain caused from burns it has
  caused.

7
The Moon

• The moon seems to have lost a once prominent
  position in Cherokee medicine by 1900. Few
  diseases are caused by it (blindness), but it is
  believed that a prayer to the new moon brings
  good health until the next.

8
The River

• The river sends disease to those who insult it
  (urinating in it), mostly in the form of
  incontinence.

9
Thunder Red Man Two Little Red Men

• Thunder is considered a friend of the Indian,
  never killing one (only white people). Thunder is
  a disease expeller, not a causative factor.

10
Purple Man, Blue Man

• Purple is the color of witchcraft and the Purple
  Man is called upon for nefarious incantations
  such as love incantations.
• Blue Man lives in the North and is an antagonist
  to the effects of the Sun. He causes pains and
  ailments due to severe frost.

11
Little People

• Colonies of fairy-like individuals (16 in.
  tall) exist in the mountains, rocks, water, and
  forest. They are invisible to all but the rare
  gifted individuals. They are usually benevolent
  spirits, but can cause disease, especially in
  children.

12
Ghosts

• Ghosts, feeling homesick for their loved ones and
  relatives, make them sick so will die and join
  them in the spirit world. This is considered to
  be done out of love, not malevolence. Thinking
  and dreaming about the departed is the first sign
  of the disease. Human ghosts cause the spoiling
  of saliva, animal ghosts cause rheumatism,
  dysentery, or headaches. Insect spirits may take
  revenge for the killing of small creatures by
  forming settlements just under the skin and
  causing swellings and ulcers.

13
Menstruation

• Menstruating women involuntarily have a
  nefarious influence on those around them. It is
  detrimental to ones health to eat food prepared
  by her, touch an object she has touched, or walk
  down the same trail she has traveled. Even the
  womans husband is considered to be dangerous to
  others at this time. Pregnant women are
  considered only slight less dangerous.

14
Dreams

• Dreams can cause a host of maladies such as
  dreaming of the opposite sex can cause
  rheumatism, dreams of the Little People can cause
  insanity, dreams of the Sun or Moon can cause
  fever, and dreams of meat or being in deep water
  can cause toothaches. Many dreams cause
  unspecified illnesses.

15
Human Agency

• Witches can evoke the spirits to send a disease
  to afflict a susceptible party. They are
  considered to act out of pure malevolence, they
  need no provoking to inflict harm and they are
  the most dreaded of human disease causers.
  Witches are especially active when someone is
  very ill and by causing their untimely death the
  witch gains the remaining vital force of the
  person and adds it to their own.

16

• Sorcerers (conjurers) may also send disease and
  disguise it as another disease. This is one of
  the most dreaded of Cherokee afflictions and is
  often done by someone to test the skills of
  another at warding off such attacks.

17
The Conjurer
18
Comparable terms for Conjurer

• Conjurer
• Shaman
• Sorcerer
• Wizard
• Medicine man (person)

19
Three primary categories of conjurer (18th
Century) from Irwin

• 1) Healers or Curers (adanunwisgi)
• 2) Clairvoyants, Preists, or Seers (several
  types)
• 3) Master Shaman (anidawehi)

20
Healers or Curers (adanunwisgi)

• Specialists who dealt with classes of illness
• Could be men or women (midwives)
• Knew proper prayers, herbs, taboos, and
  procedures to treat their specialties

21
Clairvoyants, Priests, or Seers

• Used divination to determine cause and treatment
  for a condition
• Would take the patient to water for rebirth
• Beads were a primary means of divination (also
  pendulums, crystals, water, herb bundles)
• Knowledgeable about ceremonies to bring a person
  or community into balance

22
Negatively Disposed Practitioners

• Used skills to harm others
• Known as night goer or horned owl (tsgili)
• Irwin claimed these were conjurers, but Folgelson
  classifies them as witches
• Cause physiological changes in a victim (spoiled
  saliva, food changed in stomach), psychological
  changes (changing the mind to a different
  condition), or cause death (often taking several
  months) man killers (very powerful)
• Usually very old men and women with foul
  dispositions

23
Master Shaman (anidawehi)

• Master of both healing and witchcraft, must
  understand both to counter evil intent
• Spiritual healer (male or female) - could drive
  out spirits caused by ghosts, spirits, and
  witches
• Life destroying formulas were taught to such a
  practitioner to destroy their enemies
• Constant balance between positive and negative
  powers. Those who chose a complete negative path
  were socially marginalized.

24
Diminished Status of the Cherokee Conjurer

• Early memories existed of a priestly class, who
  were reportedly removed by the common people due
  to their corruption and sexual improprieties
  (Ani-Kutani)
• A small pox epidemic in the 1730s killed half the
  Cherokee population. Medicine men destroyed their
  medicine pots and paraphernalia.
• Christian missionaries became active in the area
  in the early 19th century

25
Witches vs. Conjurers (Folgelson)

• Biologically inherited or transformed while young
• Not controlled by social guidelines
• Witch makes direct contact with the victim

• Acquired knowledge of incantations (formulas) and
  rituals
• A product of cultural evolution, application of
  power is up to the individual
• Conjurers intervene on behalf of others, evoke
  spirits to affect victim

26
Witches vs. Conjurers (contd.)

• Capacity for metamorphosis change into animal
  or inanimate object or become invisible
• Can read minds or make one sick by their thoughts
• Steal life force and add it to their own (old
  people revered, but suspect)

• Powerful conjurers may also metamorphose (John
  Little Bear ) and read minds (hearts), but
  seemingly have nobler intent than witches
• Knowledge of conjuring is acquired slowly, over
  many years and under the tutaledge of a tested
  practitioner

27

• Olbrechts found it very difficult to classify
  conjurers. They often straddled classes, having
  more than one skill.
• Also, he found that some did not discourage
  rumors about his knowledge of the darker arts,
  finding that it added to his reputation and made
  his enemies fear him.

28
Intentionality

• Studies on suggestion, expectation, and
  positive thinking have suggested a mind/body
  connection associated with healing
• Should negative thinking have any less effect?
  (evil eye, plant studies)

29
Cherokee Diagnosis and Therapy
30

• Pre-removal healing rites often included the
  whole community, several towns, or the entire
  Cherokee population
• By the late 1800s, ethnographers found healing to
  be a more personal activity (possibly due to the
  influence of Christianity)

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• The medicine persons first approach is to find
  the seat of the pain, not so much to allay
  symptoms, but to ascertain the root of the
  problem (as with Chinese medicine, attending to
  the underlying cause is more important than
  allaying symptoms). During the questioning phase
  the patient is quizzed about taboos they may have
  broken (which are extensive in range).

32

• The patient will also be asked about their
  dreams, possibly going back many months or the
  last few years. Mooney held that his information
  from at least one medicine man suggested that the
  observable symptoms (headache, pallor in the
  face, black rings around the eyes) were more
  important than dreams, but most sources indicate
  that the dreams were more diagnostic than
  physical symptoms.

33

• Once the source is determined, the medicine
  person searches out the proper herbs and roots.
  If the patient is not cured in four or seven
  days, other factors are examined and the
  patients compliance in therapy is questioned.
  Herbal therapies will be discussed in more detail
  in the ethnobotany section

34

• Perhaps the patient broke more than one taboo or
  offended more than one animal spirit, and the
  therapy was only effective for one of them. An
  enemy or witch may have intervened at the onset
  of the infliction, complicating its cure. Or
  maybe the patient broke a taboo while under
  treatment.

35
Bead Divination

• The most common an efficacious method of
  diagnosis is divination with beads. Formulas
  (prayers) are recited while the beads are held
  between the thumb and forefinger of each hand.
  The beads are black (held in the left hand) and
  white or red (held in the right hand). The beads
  start to roll and the one that moves most quickly
  determines the response to the query. If the
  beads in the right hand show more vitality, the
  chance for recovery was considered good.

36
Massage

• Besides massaging the stomach for daloni, massage
  was used for snakebites, the rubbing done in the
  opposite direction that the snake would coil
  itself.
• A stamper made of persimmon wood was used to
  massage patients with rheumatism

37
Ritual Bathing

• Called going to the water, the ritual plunge
  had many ceremonial functions, but was used
  medicinally for the effects of bad dreams and
  evil spells as well as for disease. The fall was
  considered the best time for a healing plunge as
  the leaves floating in the water would impart
  medicinal properties to the water.

38
Translocation of disease

• The disease could be thrown into a whirlwind or
  thrown into a river and taken away from the
  diseased patient. Sometimes the patient would
  vomit into the river (usually done in the
  morning) to send the disease elsewhere.

39

• A similar approach would be to change the name of
  the afflicted to confound the disease. The
  patient was surrendered to the disease, and the
  person would change their name so that the
  disease did not recognize them. This bought time
  so the medicine person could try a new therapy.