Ethnomedical Tradition in Indian Tribal Communities

Ethnomedical Tradition in Indian Tribal Communities

Aishwarya Dey

Research Fellow, Department of Sociology-Anthropology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi- 221005 U.P.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.51244/IJRSI.2025.12030083

Received: 06 March 2025; Revised: 15 March 2025; Accepted: 18 March 2025; Published: 19 April 2025

ABSTRACT

Ethnomedicine is the medical system of the common man, employing plants and natural ingredients to cure a wide range of ailments. This article explores the concept of ethnomedicine, the causes of illness listed in ethnomedical accounts, various components of ethnomedicine, how ethnomedicine is practiced, and its uses and misuses.

Keywords: Ethnomedicine, Traditional Healing, Illness, Evil Eye

INTRODUCTION

India with its vast diversity of tribal communities, is a prime example of the richness and resilience of ethnomedical practices. Nature has the cure to all human afflictions; this is ethnomedicine’s basic premise. For several thousand years, plants and herbs have been used in traditional systems of medicine in India. The ethnomedical tradition in Indian tribal communities is a unique aspect of their cultural heritage. It reflects a deep connection between these communities and their natural environment. This tradition encompasses various healing practices, beliefs, and rituals passed down through generations.

The Concept of Ethnomedical Tradition

Folk medicine is the medicine system of the common man. It is such a set of beliefs and behaviors that the group members have a common belief in. People in simple and undeveloped societies have practiced this system of medicine. The ethnomedical system’s essence is the proximity to nature and the use of locally available floral and faunal resources.

Folk medicine uses plants and natural ingredients to cure various ailments. Practitioners prepare traditional remedies such as powders, ointments, poultices (a soft moist mass of flour, plant material, etc, put on the skin to reduce inflammation), decoctions, and other treatments.

Ethnomedicine As a Concept

Ethnomedicine refers to “those beliefs and practices relating to diseases that are the products of indigenous cultural development and are not explicitly derived from the conceptual framework of modern medicine” (Hughes,1968). The domain of ethnomedicine is Indigenous medical features or folk medical roles. Etymologically speaking, the term refers to medicines traditionally associated with specific ethnic groups. Thus, it can also be conceived of as Folk medicine, traditional medicine, indigenous medicine, etc. (Mibang and Choudhari, 2003:1)

Ethnomedicine is a society’s cultural knowledge about health management and treatments for illness, sickness, and disease.

It is known as folk medicine, popular medicine, and popular health culture. India, with its vast diversity of tribal communities, is a prime example of the richness and resilience of ethnomedical practices. Nature’s cure for all human afflictions is the basic premise of ethnomedicine. For several thousand years, plants and herbs have been used in traditional systems of medicine in India.

The subject of ethnomedicine focuses on the nature of illness as conceived by the natives; their methods; criteria of classification of diseases; the causes and cures; types of therapists and healers who seek to alleviate illness, and their skills and social roles; preventive measures; the relation between medicine and religion; cultural aspects of medicine and also ethnopsychiatry (Hughes, 1968 and Foster, 1978).

In a broad sense, it refers to the interdisciplinary study of the healing systems.

The primary concern of ethnomedicine is thus with the description of notions people have about health and illness and the behavior they undertake in search of cures. The concepts and practices in folk medicine are based upon humoral theories, cosmological speculations, and magic in learned/oral medicine or religion.

Causes of illness listed in the ethnomedical accounts-

Angry deities who punish wrong-doers.

It is a common belief in all major Indian tribal communities that the wrath of gods and goddesses invites diseases. When people do not give due recognition and reverence to the gods and goddesses, they become angry and, in their wrath, cause disease, and death. They portray the goddesses as being very touchy and prone to getting into a rage soon, bringing diseases, death, and destruction among them. The goddesses are appeased when appropriate offerings and sacrifices are made with due respect.

Ancestors and other ghosts who feel they have too soon been forgotten or otherwise not recognized.

Ancestor worship was coined by the famous British philosopher and sociologist Herbert Spencer in 1885 and refers to a ritualized summoning of deceased kin. According to Edward Burnett Tylor, one of the founding fathers of anthropology, the spirits are separate entities from the body.

A human has two souls, i.e. the free soul and the body soul. The free soul remains alive after the death, whereas the body soul will disappear after the post-burial ceremony. In all primitive tribal communities, appeasement of supernatural spirits is an important component of the healing process.

Sorcerers and witches

Witchcraft and Sorcery are used to harm individuals and are seen as anti-social. Black magic is equated with witchcraft and sorcery, and these have negative sanctions on the society and individuals on whom it is practiced. The source of supernatural power in the case of a witch remains in the body of the witch and is often inherited also. The sorcerer acquires the art and does not necessarily pass on to the next generation. The witch generally wills in death and destruction, whereas the sorcerer performs magical rites to achieve evil ends. Witchcraft is seen as an evil force bringing misfortune to members of a community.

Loss of soul

Possession of spirit or the intrusion of an object into the body.

Possession of a human body by a hostile spirit or intrusion of an object into the body is said to be a cause of disease in primitive Indian tribal communities.

Possession is an ancient concept in almost all societies and cultures. (Coon, 1993).  Possession is defined as domination by something as an evil spirit, a passion, or an idea. It is a psychological state in which an individual’s normal personality is replaced by another (Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary). Possession can be categorized as 1) non-trance possession belief where the individual or close observers believe that one is possessed usually by the devil or demons, 2) trance possession where an altered state of consciousness usually of a god or spirit, alternates with the individual’s normal identity, 3) and ritual trance possession where possession occurs within a ritual usually religious in nature (Bourguignon, 1976).

Loss of basic equilibrium in the body is usually because of the entry of excessive heat or cold into the body.

Evil eye

The evil eye is the ‘look of malicious intent’ that a person casts upon another to harm his or her well-being. In tribal communities, the evil eye is considered a major source of misfortune and a causal factor of poor health. The belief in the evil eye states that some individuals with an evil eye cause illness or some misfortune by simply looking at others. According to Dhimars, an Indian tribal community, children are considered to be very susceptible to an evil eye. They do not like if a person admires the beauty of their children, for they suspect that such expressions of admiration are prompted by envy or jealousy.

What are the components of ethnomedicine?

Faith Healing

As indicated by the name of the method of treatment, the art of healing is based on the faith reposed by the common folk in the abilities of the traditional healer who will cure the afflicted.

Divination

Divination comes from the Latin word, “divinare” which means to predict. It is a range of techniques for arriving at knowledge of uncertain, incomplete, or unrevealed information. Common techniques involve the interpretation of celestial arrangements, dream analysis, augury (the interpretation of omens), casting of objects, or reading the results of animal sacrifice, among others.

Divination is a highly stylistic drama. Divination proceeds through a set of actions directed towards self-purification. The place of divination has to be clean. Divination is a session of questions and answers. Divination is basically of three kinds.

First, there is a dialogue-based divination where a client asks questions one after another and the diviner explains the causation or the course of events to him. This is the most commonly practiced style of divination. This style of divination is termed chhant-lana.

Second, there is a mechanical divination called purji-lana. The literal meaning of purji-lana would be “keeping the rice”. It is performed during divinations, generally in between the course of a chhant. It is specifically useful when there appears to be some confusion in the minds of the clients concerning the exact causation or the most appropriate procedure to appease the angry superhuman force. In such situations, the diviner asks the client to keep rice grains in two places and remember the cause for which these stand for. The diviner then turns his face away, not to see what the rice grains stored at two places stand for. After a while, the diviner disperses the rice grains kept in one place, and this is taken to mean the actual cause. Mechanical divination in various other forms is also practiced by the diviner during chhant. Many diviners throw rice grains in the air and catch them. They then count the rice grains in their palm to ascertain the cause of the trouble.

The third form of divination is to induce the client into a trance employing throwing rice grains at him. In this kind of divination, the client himself speaks about his dues.

Sorcery

Sorcery is a theory of causation concerning good and evil in their society. It includes the use of certain materials to invoke supernatural powers to harm people voluntarily. It is a technique that can be learned by anyone for offense or defense.

Removal of the evil eye

Removal of the evil eye is an important element of the ethnomedical tradition. Primitive men across all Indian tribal communities believed that evil spirits or supernatural powers were mainly to blame for all diseases. So it is the prime task of traditional healers to prepare charms, amulets, herbal preparations, and concoctions of animal extracts for removal of the effect of evil eye. For the removal of the poison from animal bites (for example, snake bites) the same process is followed.

Bone-setting

In tribal India, where a large part of the population lives in poverty and without access to modern medicine. Bone Setters provide a much-needed service. They often offer their services without charge. Traditional bone setters are so-called “unqualified practitioners” who have no formal education or training in modern medical system. They treat dislocations and fractures using methods passed down for generations. Reportedly these traditions have survived for as long as 3,000 years.

Midwifery

All human societies have patterned sets of beliefs and practices, concerning pregnancy and delivery. Pregnancy and motherhood are important milestones in a woman’s life.  Midwives are commonly known as “dais” across all Indian tribal communities. Dais is one of the potent sources of health assistance to the ladies of the villages. They are self-trained. They represent an elderly experienced lot, whose beliefs, attitudes, and ideas relating to midwifery appear to be more or less flexible. The dais has a well-defined area of operation and she knows the area and people extremely well. She has established a good rapport with most families residing in her area. She never faces any difficulty in detecting an early pregnancy.

Uses of Ethnomedicine

Ethnomedical tradition is passed down from one generation to the next as kitchen home remedies.

Home kitchens are storehouses of ingredients used in ethnomedical traditions. The procedure of treatment often includes locally available herbs, spices available in the home kitchen, or concoctions made by old and experienced members of the family. These procedures are not documented anywhere and may not have the sanction of modern medical practitioners but they enjoy the trust of the “afflicted” on which these are administered.

The list of some herbs and common kitchen ingredients used in the treatment of the maladies are listed as follows-

Name of the herb	Tribe	Part used	Therapeutic preparation	Remedies
Aswagandha	Santhal, Munda, Oraon, Ho	Roots	The roots are grinded to make paste and patient is administered internally	Seminal weakness, Rheumatism, Ricket
Methi	Oraon	Seeds	Seeds are methi are soaked in water for 8-10 hours after that it is filtered and the solution obtained is taken to cure diabetes.	Diabetes mellitus

• Use of mustard oil- Mustard oil is rubbed on stomach to cure stomach ailments. To cure cough and cold mustard oil is put drop by drop in nose and rubbed on chest.
• To cure ailments of eyes like eyesore or redness of eyes juice of onion is applied. To cure ear-ache among Panika tribal community (a tribe of Sonebadhra U.P.), petals of marigold are crushed and juice is poured in the ear.
• To reduce the effect of burning sensations, raw potatoes are crushed and applied.

It is an economical way to care for the sick.

The benefit of ethnomedicine that is most obvious is that it is the most cost-effective way to treat the “ill”. Most of the traditional healers we find are ordinary “householders” who do healing work besides their routine household duties. Their services are gratis and sometimes inexpensive as their treatment is always within the reach of the people.

Misuses of Ethnomedicine

Ethnomedicine, the traditional medical practices and knowledge of indigenous communities, has long held a prominent place in global healthcare systems. However, the growing popularity of these alternative therapies has also led to instances of misuse and exploitation. One significant issue is the adulteration of herbal remedies, where synthetic or undeclared ingredients are added to increase potency or profitability, compromising the safety and efficacy of these treatments. Additionally, the lack of standardization in the production and quality control of herbal medicines can result in inconsistent potency and unpredictable side effects, posing a serious risk to public health.

Another concern is the inappropriate commercialization of traditional knowledge, where indigenous communities’ intellectual property is exploited without their consent or fair compensation. This not only undermines the cultural and spiritual significance of these practices but also deprives the rightful custodians of the benefits. Furthermore, the indiscriminate harvesting of medicinal plants, often driven by commercial interests, can lead to the depletion of certain species and the disruption of delicate ecosystems, threatening the long-term sustainability of these natural resources.

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