Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Traditional medical practices and medicinal plant usage on a Bahamian Island

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

Abstract

The traditional medical system of a small Bahamian island is explored through a health survey of 83% of the population and an analysis of the activities and materials of the two main native health ‘professionals’ — the healing specialist and the ‘herbalist’. The present findings suggest that the Bimini medical system has historically been efficacious in the treatment and management of many health problems on the island. Part of the success may be attributed to the resourceful utilization of indigenous medicinal plant species, several of which contain chemical substances that may be curatively effective against a number of diseases as claimed. In recent years the island has experienced a relatively smooth process of medical modernization including the increased availability of ‘Westernized’ health care and the gradual supplementation of the herbal remedies by imported patent and prescription medications.

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

Access this article

Log in via an institution

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

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Albury, P. 1975 The Story of the Bahamas. London: Macmillan Educational Limited.

    Google Scholar 

  • Appel, T. C. 1977 The Curandero and the Sukya: Native Healers in Nicaragua. Medical Anthropology Newsletter 8 (2): 16–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arenas, P. and Azorero, R. M. 1977 Plants of Common Use in Paraguayan Folk Medicine for Regulating Fertility. Economic Botany 31: 298–301.

    Google Scholar 

  • Asprey, G. F. and Thornton, P. 1955 Medicinal Plants of Jamaica. West Indian Medical Journal 4: 69–82; 145–165.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baker, H. G. 1970 Plants and Civilization (2nd edition). California: Wadsworth.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bandoni, A., Mendiondo, M., Rondina, R., and Coussio, J. 1976 Survey of Argentine Medicinal Plants: Folklore and Phytochemical Screening. Economic Botany 30: 161–185.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bassett, D., Abel, M., Moellering, R., Rosenblatt, G., and Stokes, J. 1969 Dietary Intake, Smoking History, Energy Balance, and ‘Stress’ in Relation to Age, and to Coronary Heart Disease Risk in Hawaiian and Japanese Men in Hawaii. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 22: 1504–1520.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bethell, A. T. 1930 The Early Settlers of the Bahama Islands (2nd edition). Holt, England: Rounce & Wortley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boiteau, P. and Potier, P. 1976 The Urgent Search for Medicinal Plants. CNRS Research 3: 33–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonnycastle, D. D. 1958 Cathartics and Laxatives. In Pharmacology in Medicine. V. A. Drill, ed.; pp. 672–683; New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyd, E. M. 1958 Drugs Acting on Mucous Membranes and Skin. In Pharmacology in Medicine. V. A. Drill, ed.; pp. 685–702; New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Britton, N. L. and Millspaugh, C. F. 1920 The Bahama Flora. New York: New York Botanical Garden.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buchler, I. R. 1964 Caymanian Folk Medicine. Human Organization 23: 48–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, B. B. 1958 Digestants. In Pharmacology in Medicine. V. A. Drill, ed.; pp. 663–671; New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coker, W. C. 1905 Vegetation of the Bahama Islands. In The Bahama Islands. G. B. Shattuck, ed.; pp. 185–272. New York and Baltimore: Macmillan Publishers and The Johns Hopkins Press (The Geographical Society of Baltimore).

    Google Scholar 

  • Cosminsky, S. 1975 Changing Food and Medical Beliefs and Practices in a Guatemalan Community. Ecology of Food and Nutrition 4: 1–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies, J. E., Edmundson, W. F., and Raffonelli, A. 1975 The Role of House Dust in Human DDT Pollution. American Journal of Public Health 65: 53–57.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeWalt, K. M. 1977 The Illnesses No Longer Understand: Changing Concepts of Health and Curing in a Rural Mexican Community. Medical Anthropology Newsletter 8 (2): 5–11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dobkin de Rios, M. 1972 Visionary Vine: Psychedelic Healing in the Peruvian Amazon. San Francisco: Chandler.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dobkin de Rios, M. 1973a Curing with Ayahuasca in an Urban Slum. In Hallucinogens and Shamanism. M. J. Harner, ed.; pp. 67–85. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dobkin de Rios, M. 1973b The Non-Western Use of Hallucinogenic Agents. In Drug Use in America: Problems in Perspective; Appendix, the Technical Papers of the 2nd Report. U.S. National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, pp. 1179–1235. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dow, T. 1965 Primitive Medicine in Haiti. Bulletin of the History of Medicine 39: 34–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Du Toit, B. M., ed. 1977 Drugs, Rituals, and Altered States of Consciousness. Rotterdam: A. A. Balkema.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eldridge, J. 1975 Bush Medicine in the Exumas and Long Island, Bahamas: A Field Study. Economic Botany 29: 307–332.

    Google Scholar 

  • Everett, M. W., Waddell, J. O., and Heath, D. B., eds. 1977 Cross-Cultural Approaches to the Study of Alcohol. The Hague: Mouton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fabrega, H. 1973 An Integrated Theory of Disease: Ladino-Mestizo Views of Disease in the Chiapas Highlands. Psychosomatic Medicine 35: 223–239.

    Google Scholar 

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

    Google Scholar 

  • Felger, R. and Moser, M. 1974 Seri Indian Pharmacopoeia. Economic Botany 28: 415–436.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ford, K. C. 1975 Las Yerbas de la Gente: A Study of Hispano-American Medicinal Plants. Museum of Anthropology, Anthropological Papers volume 60. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foster, G. M. 1976 Disease Etiologies in Non-Western Medical Systems. American Anthropologist 78: 773–782.

    Google Scholar 

  • Furst, P. T. 1976 Hallucinogens and Culture. San Francisco: Chandler & Sharp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galiano, J. A. 1976 Coca and Popular Medicine in Peru: An Historical Analysis of Attitudes. In Medical Anthropology. F. Grollig and H. Haley, eds.; pp. 49–66. The Hague: Mouton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gamble, M. A. 1975 Teas from the Herb Garden. Horticulture 53 (3): 44–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibbs, R. Darnley 1974 Chemotaxonomy of Flowering Plants. Montreal and London: McGill-Queen's University Press (4 volumes).

    Google Scholar 

  • Ginzbarg, S. 1977 Plantas Medicinales de los Indios Bribris y Cabécar. América Indígena 37: 367–398.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, B. J. 1977 The Heart of What's the Matter: The Semantics of Illness in Iran. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 1: 25–58.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodman, F. D., Henney, J. H., and Pressel, E., eds. 1974 Trance, Healing, and Hallucination. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grisebach, A. H. R. 1864 Flora of the British West Indian Islands. London: Lovell Reeve.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grollig, F. X. and Haley, H. B., eds. 1976 Medical Anthropology. The Hague: Mouton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grover, N. 1965 Man and Plants Against Pain. Economic Botany 19: 99–112.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halberstein, R. A. 1978 Population Regulation in a Human Island Community. Manuscript.

  • Halberstein, R. A. and Davies, J. E. 1978 Changing Patterns of Health and Health Care on a Small Bahamian Island. Social Science and Medicine (in press).

  • Hanna, J. M. 1974 Coca Leaf Use in Southern Peru: Some Biosocial Aspects. American Anthropologist 76: 281–297.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrison, I. E. and Cosminsky, S., eds. 1976 Traditional Medicine. New York and London: Garland Publishers, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartley, W. and Hartley, E. 1974 Thank You For Walkin' By, Doctor. Prism 2 (2): 43–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harwood, A. 1977 Puerto Rican Spiritism (part 1). Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 1: 69–95.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hern, W. M. 1976 Knowledge and Use of Herbal Contraceptives in a Peruvian Amazon Village. Human Organization 35: 9–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hodge, W. H. and Taylor, D. 1957 The Ethnobotany of the Island Caribs of Dominica. Webbia 12: 513–644.

    Google Scholar 

  • Howard, R. A. 1948 Vegetation of the Bimini Island Group, Bahamas, British West Indies. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Biological Laboratories.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hulpieu, H. R. and Harger, R. N. 1958 The Alcohols. In Pharmacology in Medicine. V. A. Drill, ed.; pp. 195–214. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Humphries, S. V. 1957 A Study of Hypertension in the Bahamas. South African Medical Journal 31: 694.

    Google Scholar 

  • Imperato, P. J. 1977 African Folk Medicine: Practices and Beliefs of the Bambara and Other Peoples. Baltimore: York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, B. C. and Remington, R. D. 1961 A Sampling Study of Blood Pressure Levels in White and Negro Residents of Nassau, Bahamas. Journal of Chronic Diseases 13: 39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kadans, J. K. 1977 Encyclopedia of Medicinal Plants. New York: Arco.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kensinger, K. M. 1973 Banisteriopsis Usage Among the Peruvian Cashinahua. In Hallucinogens and Shamanism. M. J. Harner, ed.; pp. 9–14. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keys, A. 1967 Blood Lipids in Man — A Brief Review. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 51: 508.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kiev, A. 1961 Folk Psychiatry in Haiti. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 132: 260–265.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kiev, A. 1966 Obstacles to Medical Progress in Haiti. Human Organization 25: 10–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kilcoyne, M. M. 1973 Hypertension and Heart Disease in the Urban Community. Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine 49: 501–509.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kleinman, A. M. 1974 Cognitive Structures of Traditional Medical Systems: Ordering, Explaining, and Interpreting the Human Experience of Illness. Ethnomedicine 3: 27–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koss, J. D. 1975 Therapeutic Aspects of Puerto Rican Cult Practices. Psychiatry 38: 160–171.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koss, J. D. 1977 Social Process, Healing, and Self-Defeat Among Puerto Rican Spiritists. American Ethnologist 4: 453–469.

    Google Scholar 

  • La Barre, W. 1972 Hallucinogens and the Shamanistic Origins of Religion. In Flesh of the Gods. P. T. Furst, ed.; pp. 261–278. New York: Praeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • La Flamme, A. G. 1975 Black and White on Green Turtle Cay. Caribbean Review 7 (1): 13–17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Landy, D. M. 1974 Role Adaptation: Traditional Curers Under the Impact of Western Medicine. American Ethnologist 1: 103–127.

    Google Scholar 

  • Landy, D. M. 1977a Responses to Sickness. Science 197: 1174–1175.

    Google Scholar 

  • Landy, D. M. 1977b Culture, Disease, and Healing. ed., New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leon, L. A. 1977 Salud y Medicina en los Grupos Aborigenes del Oriente Equatoriano. América Indígena 37: 399–424.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leslie, C., ed. 1976 Asian Medical Systems: A Comparative Study. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, W. H. and Lewis, M. P. F. Elvin 1977 Medical Botany: Plants Affecting Man's Health. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindley, J. 1849 Medical and Economic Botany. London: Bradbury & Evans.

    Google Scholar 

  • Logan, M. H. 1973 Digestive Disorders and Plant Medicinals in Highland Guatemala. Anthropos 68: 537–547.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loudon, J. B., ed. 1976 Social Anthropology and Medicine. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lunn, J. A., Miridjanian, A., Fontares, P., Jacobs, E., Rosen, S., and Christakis, G. 1974 Epidemiologic Reconnaissance of Hypertension in the Bahamas: With Special Reference to Depot Fat Composition and Its Implications in Relation to Cardiovascular Disease Prevalence. Mt. Sinai Journal of Medicine 41: 444–452.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lust, J. 1974 The Herb Book. New York: Bantam.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mabry, T. J., Alston, R. E., and Runeckles, V. C., eds. 1968 Recent Advances in Phytochemistry. Volume 1. Proceedings of the 6th Annual Symposium of the Phytochemical Society of North America. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacDonald, C. 1975 Medicines of the Maori. London: Collins.

    Google Scholar 

  • McClain, C. L. 1975 Ethno-Obstetrics in Ajijic. Anthropological Quarterly 48: 38–56.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mischel, F. 1959 Faith Healing and Medical Practice in the Southern Caribbean. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 15: 407–417.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitsuhashi, H. 1976 Medicinal Plants of the Ainu. Economic Botany 30: 209–218.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moerman, D. E. 1977 American Medical Ethnobotany. New York: Garland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moldenke, H. N. and Moldenke, A. L. 1952 Plants of the Bible. Waltham, Mass.: Chronica Botanica.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morris, M. 1970 Environmental Modification and Differential Health Practices. Social Science and Medicine 4: 335–342.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morton, J. F. 1961 Folk Uses and Commercial Exploitation of Aloe Leaf Pulp. Economic Botany 15: 311–319.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morton, J. F. 1968 A Survey of Medicinal Plants of Curacao. Economic Botany 22: 87–102.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morton, J. F. 1977 Wild Plants for Survival in South Florida (4th edition). Miami: Trend House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moser, M., Morgan, R., Hale, M., Hobler, S., Dodge, J., and Macaulay, A. 1959 Epidemiology of Hypertension with Particular Reference to the Bahamas. American Journal of Cardiology 4: 727.

    Google Scholar 

  • Niehoff, J. 1959 Bush: The Folk Medicine of Trinidad. Lore 9: 74–83.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nún\~ez Meléndez, E. 1964 Plantas Medicinales de Puerto Rico. University of Puerto Rico, Boletín 176

  • Oakes, A. J. and Morris, M. P. 1958 The West Indian Weedwoman of the United States Virgin Islands. Bulletin of the History of Medicine 32: 164–170.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ogawa, K. 1969 Lipid Metabolism in Arteriosclerosis: Correlation Between Fatty Acid Composition of Plasma and Obesity or Plasma Lipid Concentration in Arteriosclerosis and Essential Hypertension. Tohoku Igaku Zasshi 80 (1): 1–5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ortiz de Montellano, B. 1975 Empirical Aztec Medicine. Science 188: 215–220.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oyesola, S. O. 1976 Indigenous Medicine of the Yoruba in Nigeria. Bulletin of the Cleveland Medical Library 22 (3): 47–55.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pennington, C. W. 1973 Plantas Medicinales Utilizadas por el Pima Montanes de Chihuahua. América Indígena 33: 213–232.

    Google Scholar 

  • Penrose, C. A. 1905 Sanitary Conditions of the Bahama Islands. In The Bahama Islands. G. B. Shattuck, ed.; pp. 387–416. New York and Baltimore: Macmillan Publishers and The Johns Hopkins Press (The Geographical Society of Baltimore).

    Google Scholar 

  • Pourchet, M. J. 1977 El Control de Natalidad Entre los Indios Brasilenos. América Indígena 37: 337–351.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prance, G. T., Campbell, D. G., and Nelson, B. W. 1977 The Ethnobotany of the Paumari Indians. Economic Botany 31: 129–139.

    Google Scholar 

  • Press, I. 1973 Bureaucracy Versus Folk Medicine: Implications from Seville, Spain. Urban Anthropology 2: 232–247.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reichel-Dolmatoff, G. 1976 The Shaman and the Jaguar: A Study of Narcotic Drugs Among the Indians of Colombia. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rodgers, W. B. 1967 Household Atomism and Change in the Out Island Bahamas. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 23: 244–260.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubin, V. and Comitas, L. 1975 Ganja in Jamaica: A Medical Anthropological Study of Chronic Marihuana Use. The Hague: Mouton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sawyer, W. H. 1955 Medicinal Uses of Plants by Native Inaguans. Scientific Monthly 80: 371–376.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schery, R. W. 1972 Plants for Man (2nd edition). New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Safford, W. E. 1916 Identity of Cohoba, the Narcotic Snuff of Ancient Haiti. Journal of the Washington Academy of Science 6: 547–562.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seaforth, C. 1962 Drugs from the West Indies. Caribbean Quarterly 7: 198–202.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seaga, E. 1969 Cults in Jamaica. Jamaica Journal 3 (2): 3–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sharon, D. G. and Dornnan, C. B. 1977 The Magic Cactus: Ethnoarchaeological Continuity in Peru. Archaeology 30: 374–381.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shorland, F., Czochanska, Z., and Prior, I. 1969 Studies on Fatty Acid Composition of Adipose Tissue and Blood Lipids of Polynesians. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 22: 594–605.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simpson, G. E. 1962 Folk Medicine in Trinidad. Journal of American Folklore 75: 326–340.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, P. K. 1958 Nonnarcotic Analgesics and Antipyretics. In Pharmacology in Medicine. V. A. Drill, ed. New York: Mcgraw-Hill; pp. 253–271.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stahl, G., Carmichael, L. P., Davies, J. E., and Frazier, D. E. 1972 Health and Disease Profile of the Island of Bimini Based Upon Physical and Multiphasic Screening of 530 Residents. In 17th Scientific Meeting of the Standing Advisory Committee for Medical Research in the British Caribbean. p. 41. Nassau, Bahamas: Bahamas Ministry of Health.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stecher, P. G., ed. 1968 The Merck Index (8th edition). Rahway, New Jersey: Merck & Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swain, T., ed. 1963 Chemical Plant Taxonomy. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vergroesen, A. J. 1977 Physiological Effects of Dietary Linoleic Acid. Nutrition Reviews 35: 1–5.

    Google Scholar 

  • von Reis Altschul, S. 1977 Exploring the Herbarium. Scientific American 236 (5): 96–104.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wassen, S. H. 1964 Some General Viewpoints in the Study of Native Drugs Especially from the West Indies and South America. Ethnos 29: 97–120.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weiner, M. A. 1972 Earth Medicine — Earth Foods. London: Collier Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Westlager, C. A. 1973 Magic Medicines of the Indians. New Jersey: Middle Atlantic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wong, W. 1976 Some Folk Medicinal Plants from Trinidad. Economic Botany 30: 103–142.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Miami, USA

    Robert A. Halberstein & Ashley B. Saunders

Authors
  1. Robert A. Halberstein
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ashley B. Saunders
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Halberstein, R.A., Saunders, A.B. Traditional medical practices and medicinal plant usage on a Bahamian Island. Cult Med Psych 2, 177–203 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00054583

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00054583

Keywords

Search

Navigation