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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


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


~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


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



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,




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,




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,




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,




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

http://elpasoworld.com/stonehengebluestones


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,




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



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,




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,




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?


The Celts


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,




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,




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



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


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,




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,




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,




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,




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


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

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/wisewomen


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?


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



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,




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,




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


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,




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,




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


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?


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.

http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/users/ireland/past/pre_norman_history/index.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/british_prehistory/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4352604/

http://www.rcpe.ac.uk/library-archives/celtic-medicine-scotland

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/wisewomen

http://www.arizonahealingtours.com/shamanic/SJ2.html#celtic

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