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News

UH professor pens book

Professor writes about medicine women with unique techniques 

by Mohammed Olokode
The Daily Cougar

A UH professor has written a book based on her journey to Africa examining an ethnic group in her more than 20 years of research.

Susan Rasmussen, professor of anthropology, has written a book called "Those Who Touch: Tuareg Medicine Women in Anthropological Perspective," which focuses on Rasmussen's research of medicine women and their practice of herbal medication in the Tuareg communities in Niger and Mali. She researched this for more than 25 years.

Rasmussen explains that there are many reasons she has always been interested in healing systems, including the connections between medicine and religion and the role that gender plays in alternative healing.

The medicine women Rasmussen researched have a unique way of treating patients with their diagnosis and medicine. 

"They gather and mix tree barks, leaves and roots, combining them in what they term ‘recipes,' although some local Tamajaq language names of these plants are not available in their Latin translation," Rasmussen said. 

"They prepare basically two different types of these herbal medicines: those cooked over a fire and those dried and steeped in a tea. Many, though not all, of their herbal medicines are used to treat stomach problems. They diagnose the patient through a combination of touch, questioning and general knowledge of the body, as well as local family histories and social relationships; here, what is important are interconnections between organic (physical) and non-organic (psycho-social) illnesses," she said.

An example of what they do is clearly shown on the cover photo. Many of the trees contain spirits and before gathering the medicine, she should pray to the tree and give it offerings such as millets, sugar and dates. There are restrictions in gathering the medicine, such as she cannot damage the tree and she must use a lock to remove any bark or leaves. She also must give food to the children before she gathers her medicine. The idea of all of this is "technical expertise is not sufficient; you have to also contribute to society."

There is also a process in order to become a medicine woman. She participates in an apprenticeship with a female relative who is older and has experience, and in some families, they can inherit that profession. 

Most young medicine women don't practice professionally unsupervised until their mentor says they are ready to do so or until the mentor dies. In fact, most don't practice it until giving birth to children.

While ill with a sore throat and fever, Rasmussen was a patient. She was treated with teas and massages and says that it helped her and allowed her to experience how they do their work. 

"I think it is always difficult to really understand how a given treatment is effective, because on the surface it may … appear very different from what we expect in medical treatment; but it was often very, very effective," Rasmussen said. "It did cure my problem. 

"I think very often you have to be willing to do this because you can't study something … such as healing from a distance; you have to participate in the healing process as much as possible."

Despite the fact they still see medicine women, they see Islamic scholars and nurses and doctors as well; but many would prefer seeing medicine women. Still, when it comes to Islamic scholars and medicine women, there is a kind, but competitive, relationship.

"I find it very intriguing because medicine women have a kind of ambiguous relationship to Islamic scholars," Rasmussen said.

For Rasmussen, the one thing she would like people to get out of this is that it should be looked at carefully.

"I would say that we need to take other people's knowledge seriously, not just treat it as quaint belief. That to take their knowledge seriously as truth in the same sense we assume our own knowledge of truth."

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