Tomeki
Cover of The medicine men

The medicine men

Oglala Sioux ceremony and healing

By Thomas H. Lewis anthropologist

0 (0 Ratings)
1 Want to read0 Currently reading1 Have read

Publish Date

1990

Publisher

University of Nebraska Press in cooperation with the American Indian Studies Research Institute, Indiana University

Language

eng

Pages

219

Description:

For the residents of the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, mainstream medical care is often supplemented or replaced by a host of traditional practices: the Sun Dance, the yuwipi sing, the heyok?a ceremony, herbalism, the Sioux Religion, the peyotism of the Native American Church, and other medicines, or sources of healing. Thomas H. Lewis, a psychiatrist and medical anthropologist, describes those practices as he encountered them in the late 1960s and early 1970s. During many months he studied with leading practitioners. He describes the healers?their techniques, personal histories and qualities, the problems addressed and results obtained?and examines past as well as present practices. The result is an engrossing account that may profoundly affect the way readers view the dynamics of therapy for mind and body.