ABSTRACT
Not all of the societies studied by anthropologists have as many different kinds of healers as I encountered in Peru.1 In small-scale, hunting and gathering bands, the common pattern puts curing knowledge and therapeutic practice in the hands of most of the adults in the group (e.g., Lee 1993). Among village-based horticulturalists,2 some individuals may be known for special curing skills, but rarely are these persons more than part-time healers. Typically, they carry on the activities appropriate to their age and gender and engage in the work of healing only in their spare time (e.g., Ackerknecht 1963:621-633)
Healing roles proliferate in societies that have wider political integration (e.g., multi-village federations or “chiefdoms”) and more highly stratified social systems. It is not uncommon in these societies for there to be a mix of healing roles based on the kinds of health problems for which each is judged effective: bone setters, midwives, herbalists, healers who hold religious office, and so on. In the even more integrated state societies of the past (e.g., early Greek and Arab societies and the Harappa culture of northwestern India), some healing roles were full-time professions.
