The unwritten history of medical treatment: Evidence for ritual-healers and their activities in the pre-literate past.
International journal of paleopathology September 1, 2021 Christopher J Knüsel 3 citations
Healers in past societies can be identified through funerary contexts by combining human remains, grave goods, and burial practices. Cross-culturally, healers are socially diverse individuals who also fulfill roles tied to transcendent ideologies and religion. They are ambivalent figures, capable of both defending community health and causing harm using the same knowledge. This ambivalence, along with their lack of formal organization, makes their archaeological identification controversial but possible. Healers' practices disproportionately influence archaeological records and complement historical sources for understanding medical knowledge development. However, published literature varies in detail, leading to under-appreciation of healing practices in reconstructions of past societies. Applying archaeothanatological approaches to funerary contexts can reveal objects and practices later superseded by scientific medicine.