Prehistoric Flashcards
What did the prehistoric believe caused disease?
Supernatural - gods and evil spirits caused/cured disease.
You may feel ill from a spirit being removed from the body, or if a spirit had entered your body whilst you were sleeping
What did most prehistoric people die from?
- Warfare.
- Pregnancy and Childbirth.
- Infection.
- Famine and Food Shortages.
How can we find out more about prehistoric cultures?
By studying aboriginal cultures who until recently, have lived in a very similar way to prehistoric man.
How can we study aboriginal cultures to find out more about prehistoric beliefs about disease/treatments?
- Attitudes/practices of modern aborigine tribes are guessed to be similar to that of what ancient people did.
- Some modern aboriginal medicine combines basic practical methods like settle broken bones and bandaging with spiritual explanations of illness and cure which is similar to prehistoric beliefs.
What is trephining?
Drilling holes into the skull.
Why did prehistoric people carry out trephining?
In order to:
- Free the body of evil spirits.
- Or to grant special powers of communication with the spirit world.
How do we know that people did not die from trephining?
Skulls found the prehistoric era have shown that the skull bone around the drilled hole has started to regrow showing that the person did not die from it and survived the operation.
What were the two groups of people who treated people in the prehistoric era?
Medicine Men and Medicine Women.
What did Medicine Men do?
Medicine Men were important in prehistoric tribes, as they could deal with spirits.
What did Medicine Women do?
Medicine Women were responsible for everyday health and knew about the healing power of herbs.
What was the main difference between Medicine Men and Medicine Women?
Medicine Men were more supernatural based, whereas Medicine Women were more natural based.
What did prehistoric people use to treat ailment and injuries with obvious causes?
They had a range of simple, effective remedies, based on observation and common sense.
How did Prehistoric people try to prevent disease and infection?
Medicine Men wore amulets/charms to ward off evil spirits and therefore staying free of disease.
How did Medicine Men treat diseases/illnesses?
Medicine Men would try to find your stolen spirit by hunting for the pointing stick which removed your spirit. When they found it, they would throw it into water to set the spirit free.
Which factors helped prehistoric medicine improve?
- War - limited impact - hunter gatherer societies improved abilities to repair basic damage to the skin using dressings from plant material.
- Government - settled communities governed themselves together and organised individuals into roles to ensure the whole community was looked after. Included establishing/protecting roles of the careers within society which ensured knowledge was being passed on. Generally, women taking on these roles, ensured girls could be taught over a lifetime.
