What gender were the first healers both for both physical issues and spiritual?

Question

From what I have studied they were mostly women. What do you know or think? Any sources for information would be appreicated.

Please spare me Bible Babble....I am talking about archealogical evidence and such.

Answer 1

Women were the healers, the herbalists, the midwives. The women were the gatherers so they had an intimate knowledge of plants. The men were out hunting.

For addition (scolarly information) see Women Healers & Physicians: Climbing a Long Hill, edited by Lilian R. Furst(Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1997} This eclectic, wide-ranging collection of essays, drawing from medical texts and literature, charts the uphill struggle of women physicians from medieval and Renaissance Europe to nineteenth/twentieth-century Britain, the United States, and Australia. Divided into two parts, the first concentrating on the relationship between religion, magic, and medicine, and the second on the emergence of professionalism in the nineteenth century, the collection does not attempt an historical overview, but chronicles outstanding, often neglected, examples of the struggles faced by individual women physicians and women physicians in general, as a result of church, state, and educational restrictions which formed the basis of social and cultural prejudice against women doctors. Illustrating the marginalization of women as healers, it includes essays which examine women's role in relation to medicine in medieval and Renaissance texts. One essay argues that wide-spread ambivalence to the woman healer, a necessary figure in caring for the poor, was based on the source of the healer's power; women's healing relied on little-understood herbs and could thus be linked to magic. This suspicion of women's power, at a time when the state began intervening in medicine. The book also includes an account of women doctors in Greece, Rome, and the Byzantine Empire. It shows that women doctors not only existed as early as the fifth century BC in Greece, but that their presence was treated as unremarkable. Drawing from inscriptions and medical texts, the book provides fascinating data on early women doctors and midwives, including the names of Phanostrate (c. 350 BC), the first woman doctor whose name is recorded, and Metrodora (second to fourth century AD), the thorough medical authority who wrote the first complete surviving volume by a woman doctor. It also notes that Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) is the only woman whose knowledge of medicine is undisputed and well documented.

Answer 2

We have no idea. Religion has been around far longer than the written word. Presumably "healers" have been around for just as long or longer (everyone wants to be fixed when their ill or injured), but there's no way for the archeological record to show who was applying the bandages.

Beware of sources that make sweeping conclusions about gender in ancient times. Many of the authors who write such stuff are discreditted as being un-academic in their methodology. Like I said, everything before writing is very murky. And when you're talking the "first healers" you're talking cavemen from a very, very long time ago, of which we known almost nothing of their social dynamics.

Answer 3

Ms Crone. in the Paleolithic age, the healers and spiritual leaders were mostly women and old men. These were the folks who had the intimate knowledge of plants, herbs and the healing propertys of them. The fit men were involved almost exclusively, in hunting whereas it was the women, older men and older children who did the gathering of plant foods. this involvement with plants allowed them to be more aware of which plants that animals ate to control their health and so, were able to learn from the examples of the animals and try those very plants out for the same symptoms.

The Fit men, on the other hand, were more into the spirituality of the hunt, and so the most skilled hunter would be the Shaman of the hunt and would conduct Rites that were appropriate to ensure a successful hunt. They would also know which plants to quickly gather to repair the damage of hunting accidents and such. So, I believe that healing would have been an equally important assignment of roles by BOTH genders, just in different circumstances and for different purposes.

BB,
Raji the Green Witch

Answer 4

It all depends on the culture. They were probably of both genders. Looking at so-called "primitive" societies today, you will find healers of both genders. Based on Anthropology, we can assume that the same was true in ancient times -- some cultures had male healers, and some cultures had female healers, and some cultures had both. The assumption that the first healers were women is based in Feminist Revisionist history, which is ultimately based on anti-male sexism. It is bad history, it is bad anthropology, and it is intellectually dishonest.

Answer 5

History states that the first men hunted and gathered animal products and the woman collected the plant and herb life. I would assume since this was the womans chore they would have more familiarity with the medecinal qualities of the plants and herbs..which in direct corrolation would bring in the psychological counseling, prayers and uses of these plants (((Hugs)))

Answer 6

Scholars can't even agree on which continent the Indo-Europeans inhabited, let alone which gender formed their "healers." Historically, this issue would depend on the culture in question.

Answer 7

My understanding is that it was mostly women. From the oldest Temples in Egypt, to the prehistorical ruins in the UK and Europe... women were the first ones deified, worshipped, and were the first healers.

Answer 8

Jean Auel wrote a series of books called " Earth's Children " and though they are fiction novels, archaeologists from around the world gave their respect to her for her comprehensive research .

Answer 9

women, primarily. Check out Merlin Stone's "When God Was A Woman." It is a must read for all who are interested in pre-historic and pre-Judeo Christian deities and cultural development.

Blessings,
Lady Morgana )0(

Answer 10

both! History & the Bible will tell you that the women were the "healers" as they were mid-wives & there for the ones who new about healing & taking care of the new born!