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Concept
Folk healer
Summary
A folk healer is an unlicensed person who practices the art of healing using traditional practices, herbal remedies, and the power of suggestion. The term "folk" was traditionally associated with medical and healing practices that weren't explicitly approved by the dominant religious institution. If people didn't seek healing from an approved priest or religious figure, they would seek the help of the local folk healer. Folk healers, despite their technical illegitimacy, were often viewed as being more involved with the healing process and made their patients more comfortable than other practitioners. With modern medicine being preferred, some look towards folk healers to get consoled from the sacred use of traditional medicine. "Appalachian folk healing goes by many names, depending on where it’s practiced in the region and who’s doing the practicing: root work, folk medicine, folk magic, kitchen witchery."
Historically, women have taken on roles of communal folk healers. While some men learned the practices associated with healing, women tended to dominate the field because of their association with child care and at-home remedies. Women were assigned the responsibility of caring for sick loved ones because of their historic restriction to other professions and tasks in society. Particularly in African-American communities, due to their extended marginalization from society, it was not unfamiliar to have a designated female healer in the community to provide healing and medicinal treatment because of their exclusion from white medical practices and institutions.
Women throughout history were typically the ones who were concerned with the physical demands of pregnancy and childbirth. A large majority of the earliest forms of folk healing focused on a woman's body during these life stages. Because of this, folk healers have come to be associated with women's fertility, something the religious institutions at the time grew dissatisfied with. The men who dominated these religious spaces wanted to have the main control over fertility as a way to exert their power.
Official source
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