Southern Folk Medicine Read online

  CONTENTS

  Titlepage

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Foreword

  Preface

  Chapter One: What Is Folk Medicine? What Is Folk Medicine?

  The Language of Folk Medicine

  Commonalities of Folk Medicine Systems

  Parental Systems of Southern Folk Medicine

  The Global View

  Folk Medicine Teaching Methods

  Chapter Two: Common Tenets of Folk Medicine Similarities of Folk Medicine Systems

  Healthcare for All

  Chapter Three: The Calling The Called

  My Calling

  Chapter Four: Many Peoples, Many Traditions Many Peoples, Many Traditions

  Early Explorations

  A Very, Very Brief History of Humoral Medicine

  Native American Influence

  African-American Influence

  The Irish and British Isles

  Regional Isolation, War, and Depression

  Chapter Five: Church, Superstitions, and Signs Christianity

  The Signs

  Chapter Six: Tenets of Southern Folk Medicine

  Chapter Seven: Hot/Cold and Wet/Dry Hot

  Cold

  Wet

  Dry

  Chapter Eight: The Constitutions Going to the Opposite

  Comparison to Astrology

  Chapter Nine: Fire: Bitter Blood The Heat of the Matter

  Types of Fire in the Body

  The Fire Is in the Fat

  The Bitter Taste of Bile

  Influence of Fire

  Fire Traits

  Excess Fire

  Deficient Fire

  Chapter Ten: Water: Salty Blood All About Water

  Types of Water in the Body

  The Nature of Water: Seeking Relationship

  The Tastes of Salts

  Water Traits

  Excess Water

  Deficient Water

  Chapter Eleven: Air or Wind: Sour Blood Air or Wind

  The Air We Breathe

  The Wind That Blows: All About the Nervous System

  Our Senses

  The Nature of Air

  The Taste of Sour

  Neurotransmitters and Hormones

  Air Traits

  Excess Air

  Deficient Air

  Chapter Twelve: Earth: Sweet Blood All About Earth

  Types of Earth in the Body

  The Nature of Earth

  The Sweet Taste of Earth

  Producing Energy—Vitamin C, Citric Acid, and Glucose

  Earth Traits

  Excess Earth

  Deficient Earth

  Chapter Thirteen: What’s Your Constitutional Makeup? Directions

  Questions

  Afterword

  Index

  About the Author

  About North Atlantic Books

  Southern Folk Medicine

  Healing Traditions from the Appalachian Fields and Forests

  Phyllis D. Light

  Foreword by Rosemary Gladstar

  Copyright © 2018 by Phyllis D. Light. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the written permission of the publisher. For information contact North Atlantic Books.

  Published by

  North Atlantic Books

  Berkeley, California

  Cover design by Bill Zindel

  Interior design by Happenstance Type-O-Rama

  Printed in the United States of America

  Southern Folk Medicine: Healing Traditions from the Appalachian Fields and Forests is sponsored and published by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences (dba North Atlantic Books), an educational nonprofit based in Berkeley, California, that collaborates with partners to develop cross-cultural perspectives, nurture holistic views of art, science, the humanities, and healing, and seed personal and global transformation by publishing work on the relationship of body, spirit, and nature.

  North Atlantic Books’ publications are available through most bookstores. For further information, visit our website at www.northatlanticbooks.com or call 800-733-3000.

  MEDICAL DISCLAIMER: The following information is intended for general information purposes only. Individuals should always see their health care provider before administering any suggestions made in this book. Any application of the material set forth in the following pages is at the reader’s discretion and is his or her sole responsibility.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: : Light, Phyllis D., author.

  Title: Southern folk medicine : healing traditions from the Appalachian fields and forests / Phyllis D. Light.

  Description: Berkeley, California : North Atlantic Books, 2018. | Includes index.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2017039532 (print) | LCCN 2017050448 (ebook) | ISBN 9781623171575 (e-book) | ISBN 9781623171568 (paperback)

  Subjects: LCSH: Traditional medicine—Appalachian Region, Southern. | Holistic medicine—Appalachian Region, Southern. | Alternative medicine—Appalachian Region, Southern. | Healing—Appalachian Region, Southern. | Human geography—Appalachian Region, Southern. | Folklore—Appalachian Region, Southern. | BISAC: HEALTH & FITNESS / Alternative Therapies. | BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / Healing / General. | MEDICAL / Holistic Medicine.

  Classification: LCC GR880 (ebook) | LCC GR880 .L53 2018 (print) | DDC 398.20975—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017039532

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  Printed on recycled paper

  North Atlantic Books is committed to the protection of our environment. We partner with FSC-certified printers using soy-based inks and print on recycled paper whenever possible.

  To all my children, Jeremy Griggs, Jessica Griggs, Ian Harrison, Alan Harrison, and Raven Light-Priest. And to all my grandchildren, the ones on the Earth now, and the ones yet to be. I love you all.

  Acknowledgments

  I would like to thank my dear friend Matthew Wood, a wise and talented herbalist who has supported my journey into the vast world of modern herbalism and who always has a willing ear for my latest ah-has about life, herbalism, and the nature of things. I’d like to thank the folks at Plant Healer Magazine, Jesse Wolf Hardin and Kiva Rose Bell-Hardin, for their continual love and support and willingness to let me use excerpts from previously published magazine articles in the book. I’d also like to thank David Winston, Madelon Hope, Lesley Shore, Rosemary Gladstar, Karyn Sanders, Bonnie Kreckow, Michael Tierra, Kathleen Maier, and Matthew Briese for all the years of support and belief. I would also like to thank all my students who have urged me to codify this system and save it for the future. A big hug to you all.

  Foreword

  When I first met Phyllis Light several years ago at an herb conference, I was fully captivated by this vibrant, enthusiastic herbalist from the South. She was not only brilliant, but also funny, one of the best story tellers ever, and she was completely impassioned, like me, by the plants. We stayed in touch. When Phyllis would phone, I’d make sure there was a enough time for the call. If the weather was nice, I’d take my cup of tea and sit on the porch knowing I was in for a long, satisfying, and always insightful conversation—mostly about plants and healing—but also lavishly sprinkled with details of life, love, and family. In the rural south, for some reason, time doesn’t seem as frenzied as elsewhere in the country and Phyllis—the mother of five children and the director of a busy herb school as well as a thriving community herbal practice—always seemed to have
enough time for friends, family, and a walk in the woods. I knew I had a lot to learn from this wise woman, not only about plants, but also about life in general.

  Following in her father’s footsteps and a family lineage that stretched back generations, Phyllis was a “plant person,” a healer, and had been studying and practicing herbalism in her hometown in rural Alabama for years before I met her. She had been close friends and an early student of Tommie Bass, a legendary and beloved folk healer. Phyllis, however, had taken what she learned from her teacher one giant step further. As she writes, “Having a culturally diverse clientele helped me to realize that the basic practices of folk medicine are similar regardless of the country of origin, and that in many countries, cross-pollination with other traditions started hundreds if not thousands of years ago.” Not only is she carrying on the traditions of folk medicine as it was being practiced in the rural south, she’s also integrating it with other traditional folk medicine practices and, perhaps even more significantly, integrating it with modern medical and herbal practices.

  When I first invited Phyllis to teach at the prestigious International Herb Symposium at Wheaton College several years ago, she promptly asked to present on Southern folk traditions. At that time outside of the rural south, no one was talking much about Southern Folk Medicine. Instead, most herbalists were intent on “legitimizing” herbalism by emphasizing the scientific research and modern applications of plant medicine. But Phyllis’s classes filed up quickly and got excellent reviews. In her well-informed manner and crystal clear voice, she shed new light on an old subject, stimulating interest and bringing credibility to one of our oldest folk traditions, a folk system born and bred in the Deep South.

  Until recently, folk medicine and traditional practices—especially folk medicine from rural Appalachia—were considered antiquated, outdated, and something only those too poor to obtain modern medicines would ever consider using. Even among the herbal community who generally valued traditional approaches, little credence or attention was given to our Southern Folk Medicine. While both Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Ayurveda herbalism (India) were diligently studied, and our western Eclectic medical traditions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were integrated readily into our modern herbal practices, very little thought was given to folk traditions, and Southern Folk Medicine especially was largely ignored by everyone outside of the south. Phyllis was one of a small group of people advocating for Southern Folk Medicine as a legitimate system of healing worthy of attention. As she states, “You don’t have to be Southern to learn and use Southern Folk Medicine, any more than you have to be Asian to study and use Traditional Chinese Medicine.”

  In a world where disease has become so rampart, even in developed countries with presumably more advanced medical techniques, integrating folk traditions that have proven effective over decades of use and are often inexpensive and readily available can bring value to healthcare within communities. Phyllis became a strong voice for these traditional practices through her classes, published articles, and within her clinical practice. Through her persistence, and the work of others like her, Southern Folk Medicine “has found a niche within mainstream medicine in the protocols, techniques, and philosophies of integrative medicine.”

  Phyllis’s fabulous book, Southern Folk Medicine, takes another huge step in ensuring that the our healing folk traditions continue to thrive. In this book, Phyllis does more than just codify and document Southern Folk Medicine. While describing the rich complexity that comprise these traditions, she also presents practical ways to incorporate the best that folk medicine has to offer into our daily health practices. And she presents an integrated approach to healthcare throughout the book advising that no one system stands alone, but that “knowledge should flow across the two domains of science and tradition in a more even, two-way transmission that does not rely on indoctrination in training but rather on observable outcomes in those who are sick.”

  Southern Folk Medicine, like all traditional healing arts, isn’t a static system of heath care, but is an ever-changing and evolving body of knowledge. Influenced by the influx of many nationalities through centuries of migration and settlement, it evolved into an integrative and practical system of heathcare, richly textured with a variety of cultural and spiritual beliefs. And that cross-pollination of cultural healing skills continues on through time. Like busy bees flitting from flower to flower, we have the responsibility to integrate the best that these systems have to offer into our modern healthcare and to “pay this information forward.” Treasures like Southern Folk Medicine will ensure that the richness of this system, our very own U.S. tradition born and bred on the turf of the southern states, will continue to have an important place not only in the rural south, but throughout the rich tapestry of modern healthcare systems. On every page, there’s a richly told story, a brilliant passage, a bit of wisdom or practical advice about health and healing that make the kind of sense that only folk traditions do. I know I’ll be referring to it time and again, and will be incorporating many of her suggestions into my healing practice.

  —Rosemary Gladstar

  Herbalist and Author

  Preface

  It’s not my Granny’s world anymore, nor any other old-time healer’s. The whole landscape of medicine has changed in the intervening time since they were young. Herbalists like Tommie Bass didn’t see people on multiple medications because no one was taking multiple medications in those days. Today, folks might be on six or more medications at once; back then it was rare for a person to be on any medication for any length of time other than an antibiotic, and multiple medications were considered only for the seriously ill who were close to death. It was the pre-pharmaceutical, pre-medical insurance, pre-vaccination era, at least in this part of the country. Obesity was rare and considered a glandular problem. Folks didn’t have very much to eat, especially the amount of food required to become obese, and most everyone had to work at some sort of physical labor to make a living. A person considered a few pounds overweight in those days wouldn’t even be noticed in today’s population. Access to food was generally limited to what was raised in the garden or farm or hunted in the woods, with a few commodities such as coffee, sugar, flour, and cornmeal bought at the grocery store.

  The most common disorders were digestive problems, worms, heart problems, arthritis, women’s reproductive issues, the occasional case of high blood sugar, and sinus infections and related issues. Cases of cancer in the community were fairly uncommon and generally diagnosed in the later stages. I remember when a young mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and the whole community was shocked—it was that rare. Cancer was considered an old person’s disease, and it was always shocking when a younger person was diagnosed, especially children with leukemia.

  But it’s a different world now: 68.8 percent of the population of the United States is considered overweight or obese. According to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, it’s estimated that about 23.5 million Americans have been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, but other organizations believes it’s closer to fifty million. About 25 percent of the population of the United States is considered too disabled to work. Heart disease kills around 375,000 Americans each year and is the number one killer in the world. Alzheimer’s, which was extremely rare in previous times, is now the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States, and it’s estimated that between five million and sixteen million Americans have the disease.

  All diseases and disorders are on the rise and I don’t believe this has anything to do with better diagnostic techniques. The bottom line is that folks just aren’t as healthy as they used to be. What’s going on? Why aren’t we as healthy as our grandparents? The possible influences on the demise of our health as a nation are too many to list and it isn’t within the scope of this material to discuss this broad topic. But something has to change, something has to shift; we can’t go on like this.

  I’ve no doub
t that traditional knowledge, such as herbalism, has a place in this shift. We need every single modality in our knowledge base to improve the health of our country and the world. Somehow, folk traditions and science must find a meeting ground.

  Where is the place that science and traditional knowledge can come together in the best interests of our health? In broad terms, science refers to the body of knowledge about the phenomena of the natural world. In modern terms, science also refers to a system of acquiring knowledge based on the scientific method, to the organized body of knowledge gained by such research, and to a particular field or domain of systematic inquiry in which such knowledge is sought. For many people, the belief in science is the basis of all healthcare, though folks are beginning to understand its limitations.

  There is also traditional knowledge that has been used for centuries as part of the healthcare system. I do like anthropologist Martha Johnson’s definition of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), which includes the category of folk medicine: “a body of knowledge built by a group of people through generations living in close contact with nature. It includes a system of classification, a set of empirical observations about the local environment, and a system of self-management that governs resource use.”

  Folk traditions have thousands of years of empirical evidence to validate methods and use. Though traditional knowledge is not formed through the scientific method, it may contain common elements such as observation. It is based on the collective experience of generations as well as the immediate experience of the practitioner. There is usually no real separation between secular and sacred knowledge.