Ethnomedicine Essay Example for Free

Ethnomedicine EssaySince the beginning of man, in that respect film been ail handsts that cast off plagued the human race with prohibited concern of who it is inflicting or why they occur. These ailments had to have been combated by s eeral(prenominal) sort of medicine by each culture and their remedies must have been plenty. The plethora of unlike mannequins of medicines and remedies to these ailments among the different kinds of cultures is what we, squad Bloodnut, define as ethnomedicine. Many cultures throughout the world practice some form of ethnomedicine. A field of anthropological research, ethnomedicine seeks to describe the medical systems and practices utilized in different cultures. It examines the origins of what people believe stool illness, as well as examine the ship canal in which individual cultures treat such maladies. Team Bloodnut wanted to discover the recovering beliefs and practices held by Amazonian shamans. Through the use of a life sentence his tory wonder, we sought-after(a) to get a line the traditions held by a people through the experiences of a man working with a creator shaman of the tribe.Team Bloodnut formed a hypothesis regarding ethnomedicine in todays modern world. We hypothesized that the remedies and medicines original cultures use to heal the ill atomic number 18 unorthodox from the stand point of western civilization. Western nightspot will view these remedies as barbarian and a total fallacy. We conducted our research through a life history interview, contacting a filmmaker named Matthew Vincent. Possessing an interest in natural medicines, Vincent spent over half a year living in Peru documenting the experiences of an Ameri behind Shamans journey into the depths of Amazonian shamanism.Together, they discovered the origins and methods involved in practicing shamanism in relation to this particular cultural group. Matthew trained under the gringo shaman Ron Wheelock, learning the techniques and methods indispensable to effectively heal members of the community in which they lived. In shape to effectively film his documentary in a realistic manner, Matthew Vincent needed to integrate himself into the rituals, learning their practices and lifestyles.Researching through a life history interview best utilized our information since it enabled us to capture the personal experience of a man sink himself into such a specific aspect of a communitys life. Our group set out to understand the origins of Amazonian shamanism. We wished to learn about the beliefs of the roots of illnesses as well as the methods used to treat them. Ethnomedicine seeks to understand what illnesses mean inwardly a culture and how to remedy these ailments. According to Vincent, shamans believe people contract illnesses repayable to a variety of reasons.Culturally, the soul brings balance to the physical form and makes it strong. If presumed damaged or corrupt by devious pot likker, souls must undergo rituali stic healing in high society to return to a good for you(p) state. Physical illness is thought to be a manifestation of corruption within the soul. In order to correct this corruption, tolerants go through a mixture of ritualistic songs, plant gnosis, and trances. Shamans utilize trances in order to enter different states of consciousness, allowing them to interact with souls and spirits to perform healing to the soul and bring the spirits okay to the sick physical body.One extremely common way to remedy an ailment in Amazonian Shamanism is through the use of ayahuasca. Ayahuasca is an extremely hallucinogenic vine used in brews that are consumed by the Shaman along with the patient so the Shaman deal conjure the spirits of the plants used in the brew to prognosticate any future ailments, cure any immediate ones, and try to prevent any former(a)s from manifesting themselves within the patients body and or soul. The ayahuasca brew put up take any clock time from a duette of hours to brew, all the way to up to two days, being cooked three times.Wheelock told Vincent that he has treated people who have visited a psychiatrist for over a year and with one ayahuasca ceremony, the patient feels more rejuvenated and alive than ever before. Ayahuasca can also be used for other uses as well, depending on the ingredients used in the brew. For example, if brewed with shapishico, moonshine, and rainwater, and leftover to sit together for about nine days, this brew acts as an extremely potent aphrodisiac. Shamans are non barely medicine men, but spiritual guides. Shamans can choose from two different paths when immersing themselves in their practices.They can choose to be curandero or a brujo. A curandero is a healer. He is the medicine man that can heal physical and psychological ailments that one might have. He does this through plant gnosis and conjuring the spirits of the plants to help cure the patient. A brujo, on the other hand, focuses on the dark arts o f Shamanism, although he can also heal. In a Shamans training, they are visited by spirits and are given sorcerous darts. These magical darts are a brujos weapon of choice when it comes to causing harm or killing another.He can use those towards anybody in the world as long as he has their name, a mental image of the person, a picture, or some sort of memorabilia that depicts who their target is. A curandero will just now use these magical darts, unremarkably, to defend himself. When a curandero sends a magical dart to a brujo, its usually with the intention to kill him. After conducting our life history interview, Team Bloodnut came to a conclusion on our hypothesis. We reason that our hypothesis was correct regarding the differences between western medicines and Amazonian Shamanistic medicines.Western medicines include all of the technologies, modern medicines, and commodities that these endemic cultures do not have access to therefore we are much more technologically advance d. These countries are at a disadvantage when it comes to the commodities and technologies but that doesnt mean that the quality is any less. These medicine men spend most of their lives learning how to conjure and interact with these spirits of nature so that they can heal in their favor. The way in which they do so shouldnt be frowned upon.If these Shamans have found ways to cure, not just treat these illnesses and ailments, then why havent we, Western Civilization, adopted these methods? Is it the cultism or the skepticism of failure? We think that its not so simple. We believe that the reason for these medicines not being accepted into our country is simply so the government wont lose property and control. Wheelock cured a patient that had been visiting a shrink for over a year. In that time how much money did that psychiatrist earn? From that income how much did the government take from the psychiatrist in taxes?This is still for one person, too. Some people spend half of th eir lives, if not longer visiting some kind of medical practitioner or some form of psychedelic help. There will never be a shortage of sick people, so if they are simply just cured with a friction match of ayahuasca ceremonies, thats a pretty significant chunk out of the United States money supply. Not only is it a monetary issue, but also a control issue. If these practices were administered in the United States, people would suck up insight and enlightenment to its effects.There is a chemical in ayahuasca that is an intense psychedelic. Dimethyltryptamine is the psychedelic in the ayahuasca that puts the body in the state in which it can be visited by manifesting spirits of the vine. If this psychedelic were to fall into the wrongly hands, it could be very harmful to not only to Americas economy, but also to the ones who call out it. Ergo, ethnomedicine is a sensitive subject because it is not only a way to treat people within a certain country or tribe, but it is also the wa y of life and the way generations upon generations have practiced these remedies.Just because different cultures do things differently, it doesnt mean that one way is right and the other is wrong. If we, as a species and inhabitants of this Earth, all worked together and shared our practices with each other in the field of medicine, perchance we could find cures, not just treatments to malignant diseases such as cancer. Ayahuasca ceremonies are not just a ritual to heal patients that come to Shamans, but also a lifestyle.