Illness and Ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient China Disease and illness are commonly used interchangeably, but the distinction between the two had to be made in order to successfully study how culture plays into medicine. Disease can be seen as the pathological cause of illness, and illness is a perception about disease that a society constructs. The cultures of Ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient China had many effects on the perception of illness. Illness has been around for as long as life has inhabited this earth, and different civilizations treated illness based on cultural beliefs. The main mission of historians is to determine how culture had an effect on the treatment of illness in different societies. Societal norms, religion, and location …show more content…
The ancient civilization of Mesopotamia was situated between the Tigres and Euphrates Rivers (Magnar 25). These rivers would flood annually causing the soil to be fertilized, but it also could have led to the spread of illnesses. Mesopotamia was set up as many separate city states with a definitive social structure (Magnar 26). Everybody knew where they fit into the societal picture, and this could have led to an unfair treatment of those who were ill. Clay tablets and Hammurabi’s code are the clearest cut evidence that historians have used to look into illness in Ancient Mesopotamia. Religion also played a large role in the treatment of illness in Ancient Mesopotamia because at the beginning of the civilization, illness was thought to be a largely religious encounter. Only later did this ideology change when a distinction was made between the kinds of healers that were present in society. The evidence of illness in Ancient Mesopotamia is different in most ways than the Ancient Chinese …show more content…
One of the most effective ways that gave historians a glimpse into how illness affected Ancient China was through the treatment of epilepsy. This disease was first described in the Ancient Chinese text called The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine. There is not much initial information about how the disease was treated, but the text does say that if it wasn’t treated, the epileptic attacks would become more frequent. A later text called Zhu Bing Yuan Hou Lun written by Cao Yuan Fang was the first to successfully classify the difference between the different types of epilepsy. The different types were categorized by the visceral symptoms that the patient would present during an attack. These different types were thought to occur due to different imbalances in Yin and Yang. This principle is the leading methodology in Ancient Chinese medicine. Most, if not all, treatments that doctors called for were attempting to restore the imbalances in Yin and Yang (Magnar 72). Although it may seem easy to extrapolate the ideas and methods used in this time period, there are some distinct limitations that one must be aware of before making any conclusions (Anderson
I do agree that it was all about location in the selection of ruler over those oppressed or over-run. So often we do not think of disease as a huge factor when it comes to who wins a war and who loses, but this book showed me that they were very effective, and powerful in destroying certain communities. Different armies would bring different disease with them from where they lived, spreading them to a new population. This method of warfare was far more effective than the guns were at times. Sometimes the guns would not work, or would be too hard to fire to protect oneself, but the germs knew no limits.
The biomedical worldview is based on the idea that the body is a machine, and illness is caused by a malfunction of that machine. Treatment is focused on fixing the malfunction, often through the use of drugs, surgery, or other medical interventions. In contrast, the Hmong worldview sees illness as a sign of a spiritual imbalance, and the cure is focused on restoring that
In early mesopotamia, their culture had many characteristics that made the early societies really “work.” Their codes and rules were based off certain things that can tell you a lot about their culture and how they governed the place. Mesopotamia was the first place to house civilization in around 1800 BCE. There were two civilizations that had stayed in mesopotamia, the Akkadians from 1800 BCE, and the sumerians from around 2200 BCE. Both civilizations lived at different times but had very similar cultures.
The only difference between us and the Ancient Egyptians would be, that some of what was scrawled on the papyrus scrolls were incantations, as well as medical records. Lastly, I felt the Ancient Egyptians ability to relieve pain through homeopathic remedies was very clever, in the way they were able to use their intuition in nature and provide for these remedies. An example of two of their most common homeopathic remedies, was to chew a ball of honey, cinnamon, myrrh, frankincense, and pignon, to cure chronic bad breath. As well as opium was administered as an anesthetic, as this originally comes from the poppy plant. There are plenty of more pros and cons I could list, such as the pro of sanitation, as this lessened the mortality rate, due to their deep values for cleanliness, where surgical instruments were sterilized, as well as the places of medical practice.
Mesopotamia collections of varied cultures whose real bonds were known as their scripts, gods, and attitudes toward women. The social customs, laws, and language of Akkad cannot be assumed to have similarity to those who are part of Babylon, however, the rights of women, importance of literacy, and the pantheon of the gods were shared throughout the region. As a result, Mesopotamia could be understood more efficiently as a region that manufactured many empires and civilizations. Mesopotamia is often known as the “cradle of civilization” because of the developments that happened in the region of Sumner. The world’s first urban
When people got sick they needed medicine, physicians, and health care. In the late 1500 there was not a great deal medican, there was mostly just spiritual analysis. One of the key figures of the medical world was Andreas Vesalius who became Professor of surgery and anatomy at the University of Padua, when he was only twenty three. In most detail Vesalius showed that
Such evidence proves that the Mesopotamian people had specialized people, which shows even more that they were in fact a civilization. However, with such climate, maintaining the richness was a
In this sense I want to explore how cultural influence impacts the effects on biomedicine and it's effectiveness in treating people that have different ethnic backgrounds
Medicine has slowly evolved over the years each year coming up with new advancements. For many years eastern medicine strived, many cultures believed in many different things but all these beliefs
With the rivers located just by ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, both civilizations’ culture depended on agriculture, and were formed around agricultural communities which supplied them with food. In Egypt, the annual flooding of the Nile contributed to their development in agriculture, while Mesopotamians depended on the Euphrates river, which was less dependable than the Nile because of its unpredictable flooding. The flooding of the two rivers in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia left a fertile layer of soil, making it easier to plant crops and allowing both communities to depend on their rivers for
Also, Europeans used their medical knowledge to try and justify their imperialism, as Headrick states, “European medicine provided the rationale for much of the imperialist enterprise, serving to justify it in terms of humanitarianism and progress” (Headrick, 108). Europeans argued that they were trying to bring civilization and progress to those who were “uncivilized”. They believed that they were inferior and needed intervention in order to grow as a civilization and people. So, they argued that they would be the ones that would bring this process and civilization to them since they
Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, modern day Iraq, were two civilizations that shaped the way with regards to the religious, public works, and government aspects of our lives. They showed how to act in order to be successful. Many of the acts that were performed in ancient times are still done today. There are many aspects that go into a civilization, but the three that were really significant in the ancient civilizations of Egypt and different Mesopotamian civilizations were the similarities and differences between the religious, public works, and governmental aspects. When archeologists look at two different civilizations they often use the skill of comparison.
Why was Mesopotamia a great Civilization? Introduction Mesopotamia is a very amazing civilization. They have organized people too different categories and gave them jobs, they made many Inventions that have changed the world, and has had many famous, great, and loyal Kings and Leaders, such as Harramabi and Gilgamesh. They made the first literature, and began Art.
We use herbs, like they did, but we use different ones specific to the patient’s needs. Affected the Lives of People Medicine helped the people get cured of common diseases. Faith healing, if it worked, also brought more people to become religious and believe that God saved them or their family. Sometimes the use of leeching to cure diseases made the patient’s condition worse.
The Egyptian civilization was the first great civilization. During ancient Egypt (3300bc to 525bc) is where we first see what, today, we call “Medical care”. Egyptians thought that evil