Folk healers: a different perspective

Non-western folk healers and their methods are often dismissed by westerners who feel that only physicians who have been well schooled in the Hippocratic tradition at an established university can provide health care adequately. The author, however, asserts that folk healers have a valuable role in medicine. A large percentage of the world's population relies on these practitioners as primary health care providers, and thus their contribution to medicine is considerable on a global scale. Similarly, treatments and pharmaceutical agents discovered by tribal healers have, on occasion, been keenly adopted by the west. Acknowledging the significance of this contribution can stimulate further study of alternative treatment options and philosophies.