Folk healers: who they are and what they do

Folk healers are the people communities turn to when someone is ill: the curandero and curandera of Mexico and the Andes, the sangoma and inyanga of southern Africa, the hakim of the Islamic world, the vaidya of India, the bone-setter, the village midwife and the Siberian shaman. They combine remedies, ritual and counsel. This page describes them as tradition, not as medical advice, and illness needs real medical care. They are found in every society and are usually the nearest source of help.

What healers do

A healer listens to a person's story, names the trouble, and prescribes a course that may involve plants, diet, prayer, cleansing, a gathering of kin, or a sacrifice. The framing often covers the family and the spirit as well as the body. Healers are frequently the first and sometimes the only help available in places far from clinics. Treatments often involve plants, massage, steam, prayer, fasting and dietary rules, and the healer's own reputation counts for a great deal.

Who becomes one

Some healers inherit the role, some are called by ancestors, and some train as apprentices. Women are prominent as midwives, herbalists and spirit healers, though status and income often go to male specialists and licensed practitioners. In Latin America, curanderos draw on Catholic saints, Indigenous plant knowledge and Spanish folk medicine. In Ethiopia, the debtera works with scrolls and church learning. Some healers are called through illness themselves, which is described as a mark that they can heal others.

States and doctors

Law treats healers in different ways. India's AYUSH ministry supports Ayurveda, Unani and others. South Africa passed a Traditional Health Practitioners Act in 2007. Elsewhere, healers face police action under witchcraft or quackery laws, and in colonial times many were banned outright. Doctors sometimes work with healers, for instance in HIV outreach in Africa. Healers in some regions are also asked to settle family quarrels, since illness is held to follow from tension in the household.

Harm and caution

Harm can come from delay, from unsafe substances, from sexual or financial abuse of patients, and from fraud. Exorcism of mental illness has led to deaths. Anthropologists add that healing rites can bring comfort and social support that clinics sometimes lack. Anyone with a serious symptom should see a qualified clinician, whatever other help they seek. In places where clinics are far away, a healer may deliver babies, set bones and treat fever, and the quality of that care varies widely.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

Dukun: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0, source

Ahmad al-Buni: Khalili Collections, CC BY-SA 3.0 igo, source

Nkisi: MiddleOfAfrica, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

Seiðr: John Bauer, Public domain, source

Obsidian: Krassotkin, CC0, source

Santería: Jorge Royan, CC BY-SA 3.0, source

Cunning folk: Midnightblueowl at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, source

Kahuna: Unknown author, Public domain, source

Fortune-telling: Taras Shevchenko, Public domain, source

Machi: Unknown author, Public domain, source

Necromancy: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source

Magic in the Greco-Roman world: ArchaiOptix, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

Tohunga: Gottfried Lindauer, Public domain, source

Mother Shipton: Unknown author, Public domain, source

Azande witchcraft: Unknown author, CC BY 4.0, source

Folk healers