Is the witchdoctor medically competent?
Kiernan, J.P.
South African Medical Journal 53(26): 1072-1073
1978
ISSN/ISBN: 0256-9574 PMID: 694682 Document Number: 138177
Any possible collaboration with indigenous healers presupposes a precise knowledge of what they do. Diviners are specialists in social relations and their expertise can be of benefit to medical practice. The medicines employed by herbalists are not usually therapeutic in the physical sense. They operate on a mystical and symbolic plane, which is foreign to the practice of "Western" medicine.