South Africa has a high HIV/AIDS prevalence. Due to the unavailability of antiretroviral drugs and South African’s trust in traditional healers for health problems, traditional healers are involved in treating HIV/AIDS. This dissertation outlines traditional healers’ role in HIV/AIDS in Tembisa, a township situated in the East Rand section of Johannesburg. People living with HIV/AIDS, traditional healers and health care workers were interviewed. The dissertation also confirms the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Tembisa.. According to the dissertation, a reasonable highest number of People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWAS) 8 out of 10 consulted Traditional healers to seek treatment of HIV/AIDS Opportunistic infections, although three out of eight indicated that consulting traditional healers was not necessarily their own choice. Two PLWAS do not believe in traditional healers and have never consulted them. Five PLWAS’s view was that Traditional healers can treat opportunistic infections effectively and they indicated their own health bear evidence to such claims. The study had shown that, although traditional healers have shown good rapport with their clients, and have earned positive respect due to their involvement in HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment in their communities, there are also challenges with regards to their work that calls for urgent attention. For an example, a highest number of Traditional healers did misrepresent diseases related to sexual intercourse, and also they could not recognize the symptoms of HIV/AIDS. They also hardly gave all biomedical perspective of transmission of HIV/AIDS without being probed. Both the group that believed in traditional healers and those that do not, as well as Biomedicine indicated that using traditional healers alone without biomedicine is not a realistic option.due to their training that is not homogenous and their profession that is rarely regulated. All the participants interviewed were in support of the strong collaboration between traditional healers and Biomedicine. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2005.

This study was aimed at identifying and exploring the perceptions of traditional healers particularly izangoma and izinyanga, on the integration of their practices into the South African National Health System. The main reason behind this research was to establish the position of traditional healers as well as to study their opinions on the issue of integration. The paucity of previous research studies on the 'perceptions of traditional healers on the integration of their practice-s into the national health care system, was the main motivation behind this study. Participants were drawn from the Pietermaritzburg area and selection was based on purposeful sampling. The data of the study was collected by means of semi-structured interviews, which employed open- ended questions. This study was conceptualized within the African world-view and cosmology. The interactive model design by Maxwell (1996) was employed in the design of this study. According to this model the purpose, conceptual context, research questions and methods as well as issues of validity and reliability, are all essential for the coherence of any qualitative study. The ethical considerations of this study were mainly around the issue of informed consent, and this was negotiated and discussed with the participants until they could understand the process of consent. The results of the study reflect the fact that traditional healers are positive about the process of integration. However, the participants were in favol of integration as a process of collaboration and co-operation as opposed to total integration, which was perceived as a process in which one system w0ll-Id dominate and oppress the other. The participants in this study perceive themselves as equal to their western counterparts because oftheir training and ability to treat "spiritual illnesses". Further, they view their role as that of providing alternative healing as well as acting as a medium between people and their ancestors. Education and negotiations were identified as the possible solutions to most problems in the process of integration. The findings of this study further reveal that there is mistrust and suspicion about western healers form traditional healers. As a result of this, improved collaboration between traditional and modem health care systems seems to be the only process, which could benefit all the people of the country. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2000.

Previous research on healing in Ireland has primarily been the concern of folklorists. Based on interviews with a variety of healers, this thesis broadens our understanding of healing in Ireland by considering the socio-political context within which healing beliefs and practices occur. Theory from the anthropology of the body and the critical interpretive approach within medical anthropology provide means for exploring how the body is used as a symbol to express anxiety about social change in Ireland and how individual bodies are socialized and regulated within an economy of power. Prevailing views of the correct "Irish body" are shown to be important elements of Irish identity, especially vis-a-vis the outside world. By drawing attention to the significance of key themes of healing within contemporary Irish society, this thesis suggests that "Irishness" is inscribed in the body in healing.

Women have been healers since the dawn of humankind. They had learned their medical skills in a natural way since, as child bearers, they were also the first midwives, nurses, health carers, apothecaries and physicians. / That women were skilled in the practice of medicine and that female healers were an accepted part in medieval medical practice is evident from the numerous references describing medical treatment as found in the courtly Middle High German romances. In this study, I will first offer an overview of the medical knowledge and practice of the Middle Ages. Then I will present literary examples and incidences portraying women as healers as described in the German courtly romances of Tristan by Gottfried von Stra$ beta$burg, Erec and Iwein by Hartmann von Aue, and Parzival and Willehalm by Wolfram von Eschenbach, in order to elucidate and complete the image of the medieval female healer. / At the time when these romances were created, medical knowledge and practice were greatly influenced by the transmission and reception of Greek & Arabic medical works which formed the basis of a new Latin medical learning. This in turn provided the basis for a growing vernacular European medical literature. On the one hand, medical practice was still based on traditional folk medicine with the female healers preparing and using simple herbal remedies; on the other hand, they resorted to exotic compound medicines, such as theriac, which was closer to the learned book medicine.

This thesis is the result of virtually a year's research conducted in three adjacent villages in northern Zululand, in the district known as KwaNgwanase. This community is distinguished by being subject to historical Zulu conquest, to a continuing influx of migrants fron neighbouring countries and to more recent social and economic transformation. It therefore exhibits a considerable degree of structural variation and cultural complexity, which in divining practice is registered as 'divinatory syncretism'. The theoretical stance adopted to make sense of this complex of variants is praxeological, with an enphasis on understanding divination from within, for which purpose the field method of participant observation is particularly suitable. Built upon close and prolonged interaction with some twenty diviners, the thesis examines divination from two interconnected perspectives; as a mystical performance, in which the inspired diviner endeavours to uncover the truth of a client's condition, and as a professional business in which the econanic motive is pararrount and in which the more successful corrpetitors flourish as entrepreneurs. KwaNgwanase itself emerges as a workshop of experimentation in mystical and syrrbolic forms, while it begins to export its innovative techniques to a broader market. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.

The purpose of the study was to analyze the process of facilitating collaboration between traditional healers and western trained health care workers in the management of chronic illnesses, hypertension and diabetes. This process was facilitated through qualitative participatory action research which utilized the principles of Action Science Enquiry. This was a qualitative research. Two phases were as followed: phase one was the analysis of the problem of collaboration while phase two was the implementation of strategy one and two. Strategy one was the development of the constitution of traditional healers towards the establishment of the Swaziland traditional Healers' Council and a traditional healers' department within the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. Strategy two was a small comparative survey into the safety and efficacy of traditional medicine. The survey compared clients who utilized only traditional medicines and those who utilized only western medicines to control their hypertension. Data was collected through interviews, meetings, observations and clinical measurements. Audio-taped and field notes were transcribed, carefully studied and analyzed. The editing analysis described by Crabtree and Williams (1992) was utilized in the analysis of data. The results of phase one was a descriptive profile of traditional healers and the way hypertension and diabetes were managed by the traditional healers and the western trained health care workers, with the aim of finding out how they could collaborate. A number of barriers for collaboration were identified such as the lack of a legal body of traditional healers, negative attitudes of western trained health care workers towards clients and traditional healers, ethical issues, perceptions of illnesses and payments as well as the lack of transparency. Enhancers for collaboration were also identified. Consequences of a successful collaborative process were established by the participants. Strategies to solving the problems of collaboration were identified and two of the strategies were implemented. A traditional collaborative model was identified and compared to an existing modem collaborative model. Phase two, strategy one, the legalizing of traditional healers in Swaziland, was decided upon during one of the meetings held between traditional healers, clients and western trained health care workers. Barriers to successfully organize this strategy were also identified, such as organization and exclusion, leadership style, traditional and cultural structures, lack of resources, poor communication and different traditional healers' categories. Action plans to solve those problems were developed and progress was made. The end result was that a draft of the traditional healers' constitution content was developed. Stakeholders who would be part of the development of the constitution were contacted. The stakeholders included the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Agriculture, the Swaziland World Health Organization, the Ministry of Justice and the University of Swaziland. The traditional healers managed to form an interim committee called the Traditional Healers' Constitution Development Committee. This committee was still in a process of involving all traditional healers in Swaziland to furnish their views and opinions to the committee concerning the constitution. The target date for the constitution to be completed was set to be around April, 2001. The researcher will still be working with the committee until the legalizing process is completed. This would take another one year to complete. Phase two : strategy two, establishing the efficacy of traditional healers' medicines to control hypertension was established to enhance trust between the traditional healers and the western trained health care personnel. From the small sample, it would seem that fluctuations of blood pressure levels were similar between the two groups. This showed that traditional healers medicines to control hypertension in Swaziland is effective. Though it was difficult to establish the safety of those clients who utilized only the traditional medicines, there were no abnormalities discovered to be associated with the use of the traditional medicines. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.Dev.Studies)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

This study investigated the preventive and promotive health care in the practice of indigenous healers. It focussed on specific aspects of primary health care. The objectives of the study were to describe the current practice of indigenous healers with regard to preventive and promotive health care. The study also identified specific areas in which indigenous healers practices with regard to preventive and promotive health care can be enhanced. It also intended to describe the effect of a short training course for indigenous healers based on the assessment, with regard to their knowledge, beliefs and practice. The study was a qualitative multi-phased research project which ircluded three phases. The researcher's target population ccnsisted of indigenous healers in Region D of KwaZulu-Natal. The researcher targeted indigenous healers living at Vryheid District Under Hlahlindlela tribal Authority. Sisters at the clinics in Vryheid and Pietermaritzburg participated in the present study as well as western medical practitioners and nurses at Edendale hospital. Focus group discussions and individual interviews were conducted. A template method of data analysis was used. Results revealed that indigenous healers practices were claracterized by preventive and promotive health measures which were, to a greater extent African -culture related. Areas of concern where indigenous healers practices would be enhanced were intensified by the formal health care workers. A short training course was designed and implemented by the researcher. Evaluation of the training course revealed that it was to a greater extent effective. / Thesis (M.N.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

<p>This thesis investigated the potential role of indigenous healers in life skills education in South African schools. The main focus of this study was to explore how indigenous knowledge of traditional healers can contribute to the development of life skills education in South African schools. The research also sought to strengthen Education Support Services in the South African education system, in order to address barriers to learning. These barriers to learning are linked to health challenges such as substance abuse, violence, malnutrition and HIV/AIDS and many other health-related issues in school-going age learners.</p>