Medicine man 20401 223482229 2008-07-04T07:23:36Z 206.40.238.71 {{limited}} {{for|the American film|Medicine Man (film)}} [[Image:Yupik shaman Nushagak.jpg|thumb|right|[[Central Alaskan Yup'ik|Yup'ik]] [[shaman]] exorcising evil spirits from a sick boy. [[Nushagak, Alaska|Nushagak]], [[Alaska]], 1890s.<ref name="fienupriordanphoto">Fienup-Riordan, Ann. (1994). ''Boundaries and Passages: Rule and Ritual in Yup'ik Eskimo Oral Tradition''. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, p. 206.) [[Nushagak, Alaska|Nushagak]], located on [[Nushagak Bay]] of the Bering Sea in southwest [[Alaska]], is part of the territory of the [[Central Alaskan Yup'ik|Yup'ik]], speakers of the [[Central Alaskan Yup'ik language]].</ref>]] "'''Medicine man'''" is an [[English language|English]] term used to describe [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] spiritual figures; such individuals are often viewed by scholars concerned with these matters as being [[analogy|analogous]] to [[shaman]]s. == Role in Native Society == The primary function of these "medicine elders" (who are not always [[male]]) is to secure the help of the spirit world, including the [[Great Spirit]] ([[Wakan Tanka]] in the language of the [[Lakota language|Lakota]] [[Sioux]]), for the benefit of the entire community. Sometimes the help sought may be for the sake of [[healing]] [[disease]], sometimes it may be for the sake of healing the [[Psyche (psychology)|psyche]], sometimes the goal is to promote harmony between human groups or between humans and nature. So the term "medicine man" is not entirely inappropriate, but it greatly oversimplifies and also skews the depiction of the people whose role in society complements that of the chief. These people are not the Native American equivalent of the Chinese "barefoot doctors", [[herbalists]], nor of the emergency medical technicians who ride rescue vehicles. [[Keewaydinoquay Peschel]] described a different function between male medicine men and the women who apprenticed them in the [[Ojibwa]] tribes. She spoke of medicine men who depended on the women to identify the herbs and properly process them, who were lost if the women left because they had spent more time on the ceremonial functions and insufficient time on the nuts and bolts of healing.<ref>Keewaydinoquay, Stories from My Youth by Keewaydinoquay Peschel and Lee Boisvert</ref> To be recognized as the one who performs this function of bridging between the natural world and the spiritual world for the benefit of the community, an individual '''must''' be validated in his role by that community. Most medicine men and women study their art either through a medicine society such as the [[Navajo people|Navajo]] [[Blessingway]], or the Ani-Stohini/Unami Morning Song Way or apprentice themselves to a teacher for 20-35 years or both.{{Fact|date=February 2007}} One of the best sources of information on this subject is the story of a [[Lakota people|Lakota]] ([[Sioux]]) ''[[Copula#Siouan languages|wicasa]] [[wakan]]'' ("[[animism|spirit]] man") named John Fire [[Lame Deer]], recorded with his cooperation in a book called ''Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions'', by Richard Erdoes.<ref> Erdoes, Richard. Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions.</ref> On a broader scale, [[Mircea Eliade]]'s ''Shamanism'' puts the whole area of religious experience and practice into a broad historical and [[ethnographic]] context.<ref> Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy by Mircea Eliade (May 1972)</ref> ==Cultural context== The term '''medicine man''' suffers from being a term applied to a central figure in Native American community life by people of a radically different culture, a culture whose members might easily conceive the Native American practices to be antithetical to their own deeply held [[religious belief]]s. The 1954 version of ''Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language,'' reflects the poorly grounded perceptions of the people whose use of the term effectively defined it for the people of that time: "a man supposed to have supernatural powers of curing disease and controlling spirits." In effect, such definitions were not explanations of what these "medicine men" were to their own communities, but instead reported on the consensus of socially and psychologically remote observers when they tried to categorize these individuals{{Fact|date=November 2007}}. The term "medicine man," like the term [[Shaman|"shaman"]], has been criticized by Native Americans, and various specialists in the fields of religion and anthropology. The term '''medicine man''' was also frequently used by Europeans to refer to [[Africa]]n shamans, also known as "[[witch doctor]]s" or "[[Fetishism|fetish]] men". 'Medicine man' is also used as slang for a type of cannabis plant which contains an extremely high level of THC. == See also == * [[Ethnobotany]] * [[Herbalism]] * [[Keewaydinoquay Peschel]] * [[Lame Deer]] * [[Midewiwin]] * [[New Age Frauds and Plastic Shamans]] * [[Prehistoric Medicine]] * [[Shamanism]] * [[Trance]] ==References== {{reflist}} [[Category:Native American religious occupations]] [[Category:Shamanism]] [[Category:Herbalism]]