Skip to main content
Log in

Elementary systems of medicine

  • Published:
Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The beliefs about causes of disease, orientations to medical problems, and the treatment practices of relatively small and elementary societies are reviewed and analyzed. Selected published reports of this problem area of ethnomedicine serve as source material. An attempt is made to induce generalizations which will serve as a possible baseline for studies dealing with related material pertaining to more advanced societies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ackerknecht, Erwin, H. 1971Medicine & Ethnology; Selected Essays. H. H. Walser and H. M. Koelbing (eds.) Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boas, F. 1966 Kwakiutl Ethnography. H. Codere (ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

  • Capell, A. 1952‘Walbiri through their own eyes.’ Oceania 23: 110–132.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cipriani, L. 1966 The Andaman Islanders. D. T. Cos and L. Cole (eds. and trans.)

  • Fabrega, H., Jr. 1974 Disease and Social Behavior: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. MIT Press.

  • Fabrega, H. Jr. 1977 Disease Viewed as a Symbolic Category, Mental Health: Philosophical Perspectives, H., J. Engelhardt, Jr. and S. F. Spicker (eds.). Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel Publishing Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fabrega, H., Jr. 1975 The need for an Ethnomedical science. Science 189:969–975.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fabrega, H., Jr. 1976 The biological significance of taxonomies of disease. J. Theor. Biol 63: 191–216.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, R. and I. DeVore (eds.) 1966 Man the Hunter. Chicago: Aldine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, G. 1975 Knowledge of Illness in a Sepik Society — A Study of the Gnau, New Guinea. The University of London: The Athlone Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marshall, L. 1969 The medicine dance of the Kung Bushman. Africa 39:

  • Meggitt, M. J. 1965 Desert People: A Study of the Walbiri Aborigines of Central Australia. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Meggitt, M. H. 1955 Djanba Among the Walbiri. Anthropolis. L., pp. 375–403.

  • Munro, N. G. 1963 Ainu Creed and Cult. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ohnuki-Tierney, E. 1973 The Shamanism of the Ainu of the nothwest coast of southern Sakhalin. Ethnology XII:I.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spencer, R. F. 1959 The North Alaskan Eskimo. Smithsonian Institute Bureau of American Ethnology 171.

  • Turnbull, C. 1965 Wayward Servants. Garden City, N.Y.: Natural History Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodburn, J. 1959 Hadza Conceptions of Health and Disease. One day symposium on attitudes to health and disease among some East African Tribes. East African Institute of Social Research, Makere College.

  • Woodburn, J. 1970 Hunters and Gatherers. The Material Culture of the Nomadic Hadza. British Museum.

  • Young, A. 1976a Some implications of medical beliefs and practices for social anthropology. American Anthropologist 78: 5–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Young, A. 1976b Internalizing and externalizing medical belief systems: and Ethiopian example, Social Science and Medicine 10:147–156.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Additional information

The author would like to express his appreciation of the assistance given him by Mrs Victoria Manning.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Fabrega, H. Elementary systems of medicine. Cult Med Psych 3, 167–198 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00052967

Download citation

  • Revised:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00052967

Keywords

Navigation