ABSTRACT
Nupe medicine shows little concern with theory, metaphysical or otherwise. The twofold use of medicine, therapeutic as well as non-therapeutic, suggests the corresponding distinction between rational practices and others irrational or 'magical'. For even though Nupe medicine is, by definition, 'knowledge', which is usually purely technical as well as transferable through tuition or purchase, it is also given a mythical pedigree and related to the remoteness of God. For they may act with rational intent but insufficient or faulty knowledge, so that their would-be empirical practices will conflict with scientific knowledge, and hence strike us as irrational or 'magical'; while in a sense the converse case may equally occur. Before examining each possibility, this chapter discusses the criteria for assessing the mystical as against the professedly rational intent behind cigbe practice. The assessment of 'mystical' and 'rational' intent will sometimes be uncertain and admit of borderline cases.
