Shamans and the Supernatural Notes

Exploring History - The Story of Medicine - Medicine Around the World and Across the Ages
By: Brian Ward
Shamans and the Supernatural
 
1. A Shaman is an individual who was both a religious leader and a healer.
2. Some Shamans still exist in Arctic regions, Siberia, Native North America and South America, South East Asia and the pacific Islands.
3. In West Africa they are called Medicine Men or Witch Doctors.
4. Medical treatment practiced with drugs and prayer, ointments, charms (talismans) and magical objects (fetishes).
5. Shamanism isn't organized like major world religions.  It's a collection of folk beliefs and myths.
6. They blamed Illness on the soul leaving the body which the Shaman finds and brings back.
7. They used Hollow Bones to suck poison out and sharp flints to cut the skin.
8. All Native American tribes had Shamans.
9. "The Ojibwa tribe formed secret societies and specialized in particular types of medicine such as Herbalism."
10. North American Medicine Men used the roots of the black cohosh, or squawroot as a painkiller.  Western herbalist also use these now.
 
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