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SOCH111 – History of Healing
www.endeavour.edu.au
Session 11
Celtic/Anglo/Saxon Folk
Medicine
Department of Social
Sciences
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 2
Session Aims
o To explore traditional healing in Western
Europe as the foundation and background for
the development of modern medicine
o To establish the “medicine of the people” as
distinct from the development of formalised
medicine
o To understand the major classes of healers and
their spirituality and practices in the pre-modern
Western world
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 3
Bronze and Iron Ages - Britain
Time Span Tools Used Economy Social Structure
Bronze:
2100 –
750 BCE
Copper and
bronze tools and
weapons,
potter’s wheel,
wheels, metal
ploughs, sickles
Agriculture,
domesticated
animal breeding,
crafts and trades
Settlements, farms and
villages; complex social and
religious structures;
matriarchy; earth-based
spirituality
Iron:
800 BCE –
100 CE
Iron tools and
weapons, some
experimentation
with steel
More trade across
the channel with
mainland Europe;
still a farming
based economy
Many small kingdoms and
chiefdoms; early part of
transition from earth-based
spirituality to Christianity;
increasing patriarchy and
subjugation of women
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 4
~5000 – ~3000 BCE: farming/agriculture established
across the British Isles
~3500 BCE: construction of megaliths began
~2500 BCE: construction of Newgrange in Ireland
~1600 BCE: completion of construction of Stonehenge
~800 BCE: start of Celtic migration to the British Isles
~450 BCE – 400 CE: documented history of the Druids
~40 CE: Romanisation of Britain begins
~400 CE: withdrawal of Roman rule from Britain
~600 CE: Anglo-Saxon culture has overcome Britain
Timeline
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 5
o Farming began in
Britain between 5000-
4000 BCE and in
Ireland between 3900-
3000 BCE
o People organized into
settlements that were
tribal in nature, under a
Chieftain
o Built permanent homes
o Life became more
sedentary
Late Neolithic Britain and Ireland
By John Burka, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=513393
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 6
o Megaliths: primarily used
as burial places, giving
insight into ritual nature
and importance of burial
o Over 1500 of these in
Ireland
o Three major types:
• Court tombs
• Portal tombs
• Passage tombs
Burial Structures
By User Kglavin on en.wikipedia - pdphoto.org, Public Domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1303509
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 7
o Most famous of the
passage tombs
o Built around 2500 BCE,
older than Stonehenge
and at least as old as
the Egyptian pyramids
o Has been completely
restored
o Sun shines directly
down the main passage
at dawn on the Winter
Solstice
Newgrange - Ireland
By Shira - Own work, CC BY 2.5 pl,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=760542
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 8
o More peaceful period with
less inter-tribal warfare
o More egalitarian society
than in the past, but a
class of aristocracy was
present
o Religious and social
structures became more
complex and formalised
o Construction of henges
and stone circles
Bronze Age
CC BY-SA 2.5,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=525170
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 9
o Constructed across
a span of time from
3000-1600 BCE
o Huge, long-term,
communal
construction effort
o Pushed Bronze Age
technology to its limit
o Evidence gathered
nearby suggests
lavish celebrations
occurred there
Stonehenge
By Nedarb at English Wikipedia - Public Domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48887383
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 10
o Place where the sick
could come for healing?
o Sacred/holy/religious
place?
o Calendar/tool for
tracking the sun and
dates?
o Monument to the
dead/burial place?
o Related to the Druids?
Stonehenge
http://elpasoworld.com/stonehengebluestones
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 11
o Balance of opposites:
Earth and Sky
o Earth: fertility,
sustenance
o Sky: charting the
passage of time (sun,
moon, stars)
o Both realms inhabited
by gods, who needed to
be placated
Spirituality
By Steve Jurvetson - Flickr, CC BY 2.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23906915
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 12
o Bronze and gold items
found in peat bogs,
buried, in wells, and in
lakes and waterways (to
Earth and Water)
o Likely deposited there
as part of religious
ceremonies
o Items of great value,
demonstrates
importance of offering
gifts to deities
Offerings to Nature Deities
By Johnbod - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.
php?curid=15618691
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 13
o Megalith
construction points
to existence of
intellectual class
by ~3000 BCE
o Firm
understanding of
astronomy, daily,
monthly and
annual solar and
lunar cycles
An Intellectual Class
o Rich fabric of belief and ritual indicative of deep philosophy
By Tauʻolunga - Own work, CC0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=927625
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 14
o Highly variable mortality
rates
o Local herbal remedies
well known and
administered by healers
or women within families
o Evidence of surgery,
herbal antiseptics?
o Varied diet, food plentiful
o Active lifestyle
Health and Healing
By User:Bluemoose - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=333105
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 15
Revision Questions
o List three pieces of evidence from the late Stone
Age and Bronze Age that tell us about the
spirituality of people in the British Isles at this time?
o List three things that influenced the health of these
people.
Other food for thought:o What do you think was the purpose for the building
of places like Newgrange and Stonehenge? What
were they used for?
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 17
o Celts began to migrate to the
British Isles from central Europe
~800 BCE
o Came predominantly from areas
near present day France and
Germany
o Brought iron, which they had
discovered, started the Iron Age
o Human migration vs.
empire/invasion
Historical Migration
By Paul Barlow - Own work, Public Domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4406721
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 18
o Varied tribal culture
o 100-200 small kingdoms
of Celts in Ireland
o ~27 major tribes of Celts
in Britain at the time of
the Roman conquest
o Culture of warfare,
waged by aristocracy
o Peasant farmers, tied to
the land of their king,
much like slaves
Social Structure and Culture
By Johnbod - CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34905390
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 19
o Polytheistic
o Lunar/Earth-based
o Worship of natural
objects
o Association of people,
other living things, spirits
and inanimate objects
o Ritual pervaded every
aspect of life
o Soul survived death and
rebirth
Spirituality
By Stephen Reid - Public Domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/inde
x.php?curid=3484453
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 20
o Documented formally between ~450 BCE – 400 CE
o Philosophers, teachers, judges, holders of
communal wisdom about the natural world and the
traditions of the people, mediators between humans
and the gods, interpreters of dreams, magicians,
sorcerers, seers
o Advisers to kings, officiates at religious and other
ceremonies
o Highly respected and held a great deal of power in
society
o Earth-based, animistic theology
The Druids
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 21
o Suggested to have
originated in Britain
around the middle of
2nd millennium BCE
o Predated the arrival of
the Celts, but
completely assimilated
into Celtic culture
o Oral tradition passed
on in formal
“collegiate” settings
Origins of the Druids
By Johnbod - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15942561
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 22
o Found in area that was
historically Celtic Gaul
o Dates to 1st or 2nd
century CE, after
Roman influx to the area
o Lunar based calendar
(months based on moon
cycle)
o Presumed to be a
product of Druidic
knowledge, though it is
in Latin
Coligny Calendar
Public Domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=194998
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 23
o Solar year divided into
eight parts by four
equinoxes/solstices and
four sun/fire feasts
o Observances closely
tied to seasonal cycles
of nature and
agricultural activities,
such as harvest
o Practices based on this
calendar persist into
modern time
Celtic/Druidic Solar Time
By User:The Wednesday Island, Public Domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5293620
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 24
Celtic shaman’s cosmos
divided into three levels,
accessed through the
Great Tree (or Tree of Life):
o Upperworld: spiritual/
star realm
o Middleworld: worldly
realm
o Underworld: realm of
ancestors, deep
emotions/psyche, where
healing is accessed
Shamanic Cosmology
By Knight, Charles: Public Domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2142428
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 25
o Oral tradition held and practiced mostly by
women within the family unit or close community
o Herbal or physical remedies were mixed with
healing charms or other supernatural
approaches
o Deep knowledge of therapeutic properties of
plant, animal and other materials
o Healing wells/waters associated with curing
certain illnesses
Celtic Folk Medicine
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 26
o Female herbalists/
healers who took care of
physical and mental
illnesses
o Childbirth and abortion
o Drew on healing
modalities throughout the
natural environment
o Based on belief that
human life was connected
to all of creation
Wise Women
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/
broughttolife/people/wisewomen
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 27
Revision Questions
o Name two types of people in the Celtic period who
held healing knowledge or practiced healing.
o What are some similarities between Celtic/Druidic
spirituality and culture and other tribal cultures
studied earlier this semester?
Other food for thought:o There is a large overlap in nature-based spirituality
and cosmology between Celtic and other pre-
Christian European tribal cultures—why do you
think that is?
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 28
Roman Britain
o ~40 CE the Roman Empire
conquered Celtic Britain and
culture shifted to Roman
o Ireland and the Scottish
Highlands remained
unconquered, retained
Celtic/Pictish culture
o Population over 1 million,
mostly farmers living on
extensive family farmsteadsBy Jamesflomonosoff, Public Domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.ph
p?curid=3689229
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 29
Anglo-Saxons
o ~350 CE, Roman rule
began to break down in
Britain (the empire fell in
476 CE) and culture
reverted to more ancient
traditions
o By ~500 CE, major influx
of ‘Germanic barbarians’,
the Angles and Saxons
from Germany and
Denmark
By User:Hel-hama - CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4684278
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 30
Society and Culture
o Close-knit kin groups
o Farmsteads isolated or
in small clusters
o Territories had hereditary
kings or selected lords
o Growing social hierarchy
and political structures
o Military aristocracy, tied
to king/lord
o Highly valued
faithfulness and keeping
of oaths
By User:Midnightblueowl, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38559469
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 31
Spiritualityo Principle Anglo-Saxon gods were those of later Norse
mythology: Tiw, Woden (Oden), and Thor
o Shrines in remote places, in woods or on hills
o Heroic cosmology, essentially pagan but transmuted by
Christianity over time
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 32
Early Christianity
o First introduced by Celts ~50
CE
o Roman Britain appears to have
been mostly Christian
o Anglo-Saxon invasion destroyed
the formal church and brought
in Germanic polytheism
o Christian monasticism persisted
amongst some Celts and Anglo-
Saxons
By Unknown Anglo-Saxon artist - Public Domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3754613
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 33
Suppression of Paganism
o Romans made specific efforts
to eliminate the Druid caste
o Centres of druidic training
destroyed
o Portrayal of Christianity as a
stronger form of magic
o Adoption of Vates into cleric
roles
o Modified adoption of pagan
rituals/celebrations and saints
o Forbidding veneration of
natural objects
By Sebd - Own work, CC BY 2.5,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=677170
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 34
Folk Medicine Into the Middle Ageso Shift from polytheism to monotheism, but supernatural
ideas of disease did not change
o Belief in and use of “healing waters/holy wells” and
other therapeutic landscapes in the form of spa towns,
sweat houses, healing mud/peat, and pilgrimage sites
o Power of charms and spells, curative power of words
o Deep herbal traditions, place-based
o Hereditary healing families
o Wise women, lay/informally trained healers, bone-
setters, quacks
o Oral tradition
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 35
Revision Questions
o List the major cultural influences of the common
era on the British Isles.
o List four aspects of folk medicine in the British Isles
that persisted through the Middle Ages.
Other food for thought:o Why did the coming of Christianity not have much
influence on the practice of folk medicine?
© Endeavour College of Natural Health www.endeavour.edu.au 36
Referenceso Abbot, P nd., Prehistoric and Celtic Ireland, viewed 18 July 2016
<http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/users/ireland/past/pre_norman_history/index.htm>.
o BBC History, British pre-history, viewed 18 July 2016 <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/british_prehistory/>.
o Blair, J 1984, The Anglo-Saxon age: a very short introduction, Oxford University Press, New York.
o Cuniffe, B 2010, Druids: a very short introduction, Oxford University Press, New York.
o Foley, R 2015, ‘Indigenous narratives of health: (re)placing folk-medicine within Irish health histories’, J Med Humanit, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 5–18, viewed 20 July 2016 <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4352604/>.
o Kayne, SB 2010, Traditional medicine: a global perspective, Pharmaceutical Press, London.
o Mitchell, R nd., ‘Celtic medicine in Scotland’, Library of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, viewed 13 July 2016 <http://www.rcpe.ac.uk/library-archives/celtic-medicine-scotland>.
o Science Museum Brought to Life: Exploring the History of Medicine, Wise women, viewed 19 July 2016 <http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/wisewomen>.
o Shamanism, Celtic shamanism, viewed 13 July 2016 <http://www.arizonahealingtours.com/shamanic/SJ2.html#celtic>.
o Tierney, JJ 1959, ‘The Celtic ethnography of Posidonius, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. 60, pp. 189-275.
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