Placebo and ritual healing
How anthropologists and clinicians study the effect of ritual, expectation and care on how people feel when they are ill.
Also: placebo effect, ritual healing, symbolic healing, meaning response
Anthropologists such as Claude Lévi-Strauss, in his essay on the sorcerer and his magic, and Thomas Csordas, have argued that a healer's rite can work on a patient through meaning, belief and social support. Clinical research shows that a placebo, an inactive treatment, can change reported symptoms such as pain and nausea, though not the course of most underlying diseases, and that the manner of care matters. Studies of ritual healing in many societies stress community involvement and the patient's belief in the healer. These findings do not show that any particular rite cures a disease. A ritual should never replace medical care, and many traditional healers advise seeing a doctor as well.