Folk Medicine in Southern Appalachian Fiction

Folk Medicine in Southern Appalachian Fiction
Author: Catherine B. Strain
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2002
Genre: American fiction
ISBN:

The region of Southern Appalachia, long known for its colorful storytellers, is also rich in folk medical lore and practice. In their Appalachian novels, Lucy Furman, Emma Bell Miles, Mildred Haun, Catherine Marshall, Harriette Arnow, Lee Smith, and Charles Frazier, feature folk medicine prominently in their narratives. The novels studied, set against the backdrop of the rise of official medicine, are divided into three major time periods that correspond to important chapters in the history of American medicine: the 1890s through the 1930s; the 1940s through the 1960s; and the 1970s through the present. The study of folk medicine, a sub-specialty of the academic discipline of folklore, gains significance with the current rise in distrust of official medicine and a return to medical folkways of our past. The authors studied here have performed an ethnological role in collecting and preserving with great care and authenticity many of the Appalachian region's folk medical beliefs and practices.

Folk Medicine in Southern Appalachia

Folk Medicine in Southern Appalachia
Author: Anthony Cavender
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Total Pages: 287
Release: 2014-07-25
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 1469617390

In the first comprehensive exploration of the history and practice of folk medicine in the Appalachian region, Anthony Cavender melds folklore, medical anthropology, and Appalachian history and draws extensively on oral histories and archival sources from the nineteenth century to the present. He provides a complete tour of ailments and folk treatments organized by body systems, as well as information on medicinal plants, patent medicines, and magico-religious beliefs and practices. He investigates folk healers and their methods, profiling three living practitioners: an herbalist, a faith healer, and a Native American healer. The book also includes an appendix of botanicals and a glossary of folk medical terms. Demonstrating the ongoing interplay between mainstream scientific medicine and folk medicine, Cavender challenges the conventional view of southern Appalachia as an exceptional region isolated from outside contact. His thorough and accessible study reveals how Appalachian folk medicine encompasses such diverse and important influences as European and Native American culture and America's changing medical and health-care environment. In doing so, he offers a compelling representation of the cultural history of the region as seen through its health practices.

Southern Folk Medicine

Southern Folk Medicine
Author: Phyllis D. Light
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2018-01-16
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 1623171563

For the first time ever, an active practitioner describes the history, folklore, and remedies of Southern and Appalachian Folk Medicine in this groundbreaking guide for curious herbalists. This book is the first to describe the history, folklore, assessment methods, and remedies of Southern and Appalachian Folk Medicine—the only system of folk medicine, other than Native American, that developed in the United States. One of the system's last active practitioners, Phyllis D. Light has studied and worked with herbs, foods, and other healing techniques for more than thirty years. In everyday language, she explains how Southern and Appalachian Folk Medicine was passed down orally through the generations by herbalists and healers who cared for people in their communities with the natural tools on hand. Drawing from Greek, Native American, African, and British sources, this uniquely American folk medicine combines what is useful and practical from many traditions to create an energetic system that is coherent and valuable today.

Medicinal Plants of the Southern Appalachians

Medicinal Plants of the Southern Appalachians
Author: Patricia Kyritsi Howell
Publisher: Boston Academic Pub
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2006-01-01
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 9780977490509

This concise guide to medicinal plants of the Southern Appalachians includes botanical descriptions of 45 native plants, their historical and current uses in herbal practice, detailed, easy-to-follow medicine making instructions and unique recipes for syrups, liniments, digestive bitters and more. The book invites the reader to explore native plants in their wild habitats and offers step-by-step ethical harvesting guidelines while emphasizing conservation issues. The author is a well-respected medical herbalist and teacher who lives in the mountains of north Georgia. Praise for Medicinal Plants of the Southern Appalachians. "This is one volume that I want to own as we enter the post-corporate age: a priceless guide to Southern plant alchemy. This practical yet enchanting botanical brings an ancient art to modernity. These pages are as rich as the cove forests they honor. Even to peruse Howell's manual is healing, and exhilarating, not only because of the book's inherent beauty, but because it contains vital knowledge all of us will need as fossil fuels dwindle and we return to the local. One day this book may save your life." Janisse Ray, author of Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, Wild Card Quilt and Pinhook: Finding Wholeness in a Fragmented Land "An elegant introduction presented in a clear-as-a-bell style that educates as well as entertains." Peter Loewer, author of The Wild Gardener and Jefferson's Garden "There are many comprehensive volumes about medicinal plants in other regions of North America but none for the botanically rich southeast. Now, a widely experienced and knowledgeable herbalist has written a thorough guide to the virtues of Yellow Root, Rabbit Tobacco, Dogwood Bark, Sweet Fern and other better known herbs of the region. From Howell's book, readers can learn to use local plants safely and consciously to improve the health of their families or patients." David Winston, RH (AHG), Dean, Herbal Therapeutics School of Herbal Medicine "An excellent, much needed resource on Southeastern herbs. Well thought out and easy to follow." Tim Blakely, co-author of The Bootstrap Guide to Medicinal Herbs in the Garden, Field and Marketplace "I often remind veterinarians that the foundation of botanical medicine lies in the experience of learning all aspects of medicinal plants thoroughly. This book guides the reader out of the classroom and into the fields and forest where plants become, to the student, more tangible sources of healing. Recommended for any practitioner who wants to deepen their understanding of our native apothecary." Susan Wynn, DVM, RH (AHG), Executive Director, Veterinary Botanical Medical Assoc.

Witches, Ghosts, and Signs

Witches, Ghosts, and Signs
Author: Patrick W. Gainer
Publisher: Vandalia Press
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2008
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781933202204

Witches, Ghosts, and Signs: Folklore of the Southern Appalachians by the renowned West Virginia folklorist and former West Virginia University English professor Patrick W. Gainer not only highlights stories that both amuse and raise goosebumps, but also begins with a description of the people and culture of the state. Based on material Gainer collected from over fifty years of field research in West Virginia and the region, Witches, Ghosts, and Signs presents the rich heritage of the southern Appalachians in a way that has never been equaled. Strange and supernatural tales of ghosts, witches, hauntings, disappearances, and unexplained murders that have been passed down from generation to generation from as far back as the earliest settlers in the region are included in this collection that will send chills down the spine.

Ossman & Steel's Classic Household Guide to Appalachian Folk Healing

Ossman & Steel's Classic Household Guide to Appalachian Folk Healing
Author: Jake Richards
Publisher: Weiser Books
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2022-08-01
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 1633412342

A long-treasured but forgotten classic of folk healing, with an introduction and commentary by the author of Backwoods Witchcraft and Doctoring the Devil. Ossman & Steel’s Guide to Health or Household Instructor (its original title) is a collection of spells, remedies, and charms. The book draws from the old Pennsylvania Dutch and German powwow healing practices that in turn helped shape Appalachian folk healing, conjure, rootwork, and many folk healing traditions in America. Jake Richards, author of Backwoods Witchcraft and Doctoring the Devil, puts these remedies in context, with practical advice for modern-day “backwoods” healers interested to use them today. The first part contains spells and charms for healing wounds, styes, broken bones, maladies, and illnesses of all sorts. The second part includes other folk remedies using ingredients based on sympathetic reasoning, including sulfuric acid, gunpowder, or other substances for swelling, toothache, headache, and so on. These remedies are presented here for historic interest, to help better understand how folk medicine evolved in America. It is Jake Richard’s hope that reintroducing this work will reestablish its position as a useful household helper in the library of every witch or country healer.

The Winter Sisters

The Winter Sisters
Author: Tim Westover
Publisher: QW Publishers, LLC
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2019-08-06
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

A stuffy big-city doctor. Three rural folk healers. An unexpected partnership could put lives on the line… Georgia, 1822. Dr. Aubrey Waycross puts his faith in science, not superstition. So when he moves to a remote mountain town, he’s dismayed to see the townsfolk reject his scientific blood-letting methods in favor of potions and witchcraft. And with a rabid panther stalking the area, he’s running out of time to convince the citizens of the error of their ways. Confronting the trio of spell-peddling sisters, he’s stunned to find their herbal remedies may contain the missing ingredient he needs for a cure. But with the local pastor hellbent on driving them out and the youngest sister unwilling to share her mysterious abilities, he worries he could lose the sick to madness and death. Can Dr. Waycross discover the right combination of science and sorcery to save the townspeople? The Winter Sisters is a spellbinding frontier-America historical fantasy. If you like unique twists on history, complex characters, and a touch of enchantment, then you’ll love Tim Westover’s richly woven tale.

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
Author: Kim Michele Richardson
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2019-05-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1492671533

RECOMMENDED BY DOLLY PARTON IN PEOPLE MAGAZINE! A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A USA TODAY BESTSELLER A LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER The bestselling historical fiction novel from Kim Michele Richardson, this is a novel following Cussy Mary, a packhorse librarian and her quest to bring books to the Appalachian community she loves, perfect for readers of William Kent Kreuger and Lisa Wingate. The perfect addition to your next book club! The hardscrabble folks of Troublesome Creek have to scrap for everything—everything except books, that is. Thanks to Roosevelt's Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project, Troublesome's got its very own traveling librarian, Cussy Mary Carter. Cussy's not only a book woman, however, she's also the last of her kind, her skin a shade of blue unlike most anyone else. Not everyone is keen on Cussy's family or the Library Project, and a Blue is often blamed for any whiff of trouble. If Cussy wants to bring the joy of books to the hill folks, she's going to have to confront prejudice as old as the Appalachias and suspicion as deep as the holler. Inspired by the true blue-skinned people of Kentucky and the brave and dedicated Kentucky Pack Horse library service of the 1930s, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is a story of raw courage, fierce strength, and one woman's belief that books can carry us anywhere—even back home. Look for The Book Woman's Daughter, the new novel from Kim Michele Richardson, out now! Other Bestselling Historical Fiction from Sourcebooks Landmark: The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict The Engineer's Wife by Tracey Enerson Wood Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris

Appalachia Mountain Folklore

Appalachia Mountain Folklore
Author: Micheal Rivers
Publisher: Schiffer Publishing
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780764340062

The mountains of the Appalachia abound with tales of ghosts and mysterious places. Covering 16 counties, 40 spine-tingling stories will have you traveling the roads and paths of those who have walked before you and listening to their sorrowful tales. Along the way, visit The Hanging Tree in Cabarrus County, Battle Mansion in Buncombe County, Green River Plantation in Rutherford County, and the House on the Hill in Jackson County. Sit around the campfire and hear stories of lore about the legend of the Bald, the warning of the Hunter's Moon, and the disappearance of an entire hunting party. Superstition, folklore, and the paranormal keep the spirits alive in the Appalachian region. Will you be the next one to visit with the ghosts of Cherohala?