| Summary |
"African American traditional medicine is an American classic that emerged out of the necessity of its people to survive. It began with the healing knowledge brought with the African captives on the slave ships and later merged with Native American, European and other healing traditions to become a full-fledged body of medicinal practices that has lasted in various forms down to the present day. Working the Roots: Over 400 Years Of Traditional African American Healing is the result of first-hand interviews, conversations, and apprenticeships conducted and experienced by author Michele E. Lee over several years of living and studying in the rural South and in the West Coast regions of the United States. She combines a novelist's keen ear for storytelling and dialogue and a healer's understanding of folk medicine arts into a book that makes for both pleasant, interesting reading, and serves as a permanent household healing guide. Divided between sections on interviews of healers and their stories and a comprehensive collection of traditional African American medicines, remedies, and the many common ailments they were called upon to cure, Working The Roots is a valuable addition to African American history and American and African folk healing practices."--Page 4 of cover |
| Contents |
Part I. Healing narratives. 1. Reclaiming our natural healing tradition -- 2. Strong medicine -- 3. Spirit work -- 4. Coming full circle -- Part II. The ailments and medicines. 5. Preventive health care -- 6. The ailments and their remedies -- 7. Animal care -- 8. The medicines -- 9. Working the powers: conjurin' and hoodoo remedies. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (page 374). |
| Subjects |
African Americans -- Medicine.
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African American healers.
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Healing -- United States -- Folklore.
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Traditional medicine.
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Medicinal plants -- United States.
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| MeSH Subjects |
Black or African American -- history.
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Plants, Medicinal.
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Medicine, Traditional.
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| Subject Keywords |
Noirs américains -- Médecine. |
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Guérisseurs noirs américains. |
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Plantes médicinales -- États-Unis. |
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Plantes médicinales. |
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Healing. |
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African American healers. |
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Traditional medicine. |
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Medicinal plants. |
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African Americans -- Medicine. |
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United States. |
| Genre/Form |
Folklore. |
| Other Author |
Allen-Taylor, J. Douglas, editor.
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| ISBN |
9780692857878 |
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0692857877 |
| OCLC/Bib Util # |
1034800527 |
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1090020086 |
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