Energy Healing
A variety of therapies that work with the body’s energy fields to promote healing. Techniques like Reiki, Pranic Healing, and traditional energy medicine practices like Qi Gong fall under this category.
Ethnomedicine
The study of traditional medical practices, often within indigenous and local cultures. Ethnomedicine investigates how cultural beliefs influence the approach to health, illness, and healing.
Folk Medicine (FM)
A system of healing and health maintenance that is practiced by laypeople, often without formal medical training. Folk medicine is typically passed down orally and includes remedies and treatments based on cultural traditions and beliefs.
Healing Ceremony
A ritual or series of rituals performed to promote healing, typically integrating spiritual, psychological, and physical dimensions. Common in Indigenous medicine, ceremonies may involve the use of drums, songs, dances, and natural elements like fire or water.
Heen Mara
Used by the Vedda people of Sri Lanka, Heen Mara refers to the practice of invoking ancestral spirits through rhythmic drumming and chanting during healing rituals. It often accompanies the use of medicinal roots and bark collected from sacred trees.
Herbal Medicine
The use of plant-based substances for therapeutic purposes. This includes herbs, roots, seeds, leaves, and flowers used to treat or prevent diseases.
Holistic Medicine
An approach that treats the whole person, considering the physical, emotional, spiritual, and environmental factors in healing. Holistic medicine integrates various forms of traditional and modern treatments.
Homeopathy
A system of alternative medicine that uses highly diluted substances to treat illnesses. It is based on the principle of “like cures like,” meaning that substances causing symptoms in healthy people can be used to treat those same symptoms in sick people.
Ilimu la Dawa
On the Swahili coast, traditional healers (waganga) prepare remedies using local plants and minerals, guided by ancestral knowledge. Healing sessions often include recitation of verses from sacred texts, believed to enhance the medicine’s effectiveness.
Indigenous Medicine (IM)
Health practices, approaches, knowledge, and beliefs specific to Indigenous cultures. Indigenous medicine often integrates physical, spiritual, mental, and environmental health, and it includes healing methods like rituals, herbal remedies, and the use of sacred objects.
