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Folk Medicine in Southern Appalachia
In the first comprehensive exploration of the history and practice of folk medicine in the Appalachian region, Anthony Cavender melds folklore, medical anthropology, and Appalachian history and draws extensively on oral histories and archival sources from the nineteenth century to the present. He provides a complete tour of ailments and folk treatments organized by body systems, as well as information on medicinal plants, patent medicines, and magico-religious beliefs and practices. He investigates folk healers and their methods, profiling three living an herbalist, a faith healer, and a Native American healer. The book also includes an appendix of botanicals and a glossary of folk medical terms.
Demonstrating the ongoing interplay between mainstream scientific medicine and folk medicine, Cavender challenges the conventional view of southern Appalachia as an exceptional region isolated from outside contact. His thorough and accessible study reveals how Appalachian folk medicine encompasses such diverse and important influences as European and Native American culture and America's changing medical and health-care environment. In doing so, he offers a compelling representation of the cultural history of the region as seen through its health practices.
Demonstrating the ongoing interplay between mainstream scientific medicine and folk medicine, Cavender challenges the conventional view of southern Appalachia as an exceptional region isolated from outside contact. His thorough and accessible study reveals how Appalachian folk medicine encompasses such diverse and important influences as European and Native American culture and America's changing medical and health-care environment. In doing so, he offers a compelling representation of the cultural history of the region as seen through its health practices.
288 pages, Paperback
First published December 8, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 15, 2026
Is the Folk Medicine practiced in Southern Appalachia a somehow special pocket set apart with special remedies known nowhere else in the world?
This author searches through history to find if that is true. Was Folk Medicine special only to the South? Where did these folk remedies come from? Was the health of those who lived in Southern Appalachia better, worse or the same as the US as a whole? Combing through oral histories and archival sources, the book is really a nice history of medicine as a whole.
It was amusing that some of the folk remedies listed are things that my own family have experience with. For example, my dad had childhood asthma, and his mom went and cut a hickory stick taller than my dad at the time, hid it in the attic, and when he outgrew the stick, it was said he would “be cured”. Well, my dad did “grow out of it”. Now is there a connection to this activity and ridding the body of asthma or as the author mentioned, it is common that young children have it and “grow out of it”. Years later, when my dad visited his childhood home, he found the stick in the attic and remembered when it was cut.
I personally had an instance where I got stung by a hornet (which I was very allergic to ) one day when I was out in the horse field. My grandpa heard me crying, took some of his chewing (chaw) tobacco out of his mouth, put it on the sting and held it there... the swelling went down almost immediately.
The overall feel of the book is a kind of praise of the Appalachian People. Their fold remedies were found most often to be the most up to date medical practices at the time. Coming from Home Medical Books that were sold by traveling salesmen. They were rooted in the science of the time, lest we forget that the science of one time was bloodletting. The author stresses that the Appalachian People were smart and were looking for the best medical advice for themselves and their loved ones. They were not ignoring the medical advice they were using and adapting it to their needs. Due to the lack of hospitals and clinics close to these small communities, families had to do the best they could to help themselves. And they did that by looking to the medical science available.
I love the fact that this book focuses on the ingenuity of a people that are thought to be less educated and backwards. Showing that was not at all the case. They were smart and they were resourceful and they were doing the best with the information of the time. Now there are “woo woo” things that are not quite easy to explain that pop up from time to time…but isn’t that just a mystery of life that makes things interesting?
4 stars - A really interesting read that I would recommend to anyone interested in the subject.
This author searches through history to find if that is true. Was Folk Medicine special only to the South? Where did these folk remedies come from? Was the health of those who lived in Southern Appalachia better, worse or the same as the US as a whole? Combing through oral histories and archival sources, the book is really a nice history of medicine as a whole.
It was amusing that some of the folk remedies listed are things that my own family have experience with. For example, my dad had childhood asthma, and his mom went and cut a hickory stick taller than my dad at the time, hid it in the attic, and when he outgrew the stick, it was said he would “be cured”. Well, my dad did “grow out of it”. Now is there a connection to this activity and ridding the body of asthma or as the author mentioned, it is common that young children have it and “grow out of it”. Years later, when my dad visited his childhood home, he found the stick in the attic and remembered when it was cut.
I personally had an instance where I got stung by a hornet (which I was very allergic to ) one day when I was out in the horse field. My grandpa heard me crying, took some of his chewing (chaw) tobacco out of his mouth, put it on the sting and held it there... the swelling went down almost immediately.
The overall feel of the book is a kind of praise of the Appalachian People. Their fold remedies were found most often to be the most up to date medical practices at the time. Coming from Home Medical Books that were sold by traveling salesmen. They were rooted in the science of the time, lest we forget that the science of one time was bloodletting. The author stresses that the Appalachian People were smart and were looking for the best medical advice for themselves and their loved ones. They were not ignoring the medical advice they were using and adapting it to their needs. Due to the lack of hospitals and clinics close to these small communities, families had to do the best they could to help themselves. And they did that by looking to the medical science available.
I love the fact that this book focuses on the ingenuity of a people that are thought to be less educated and backwards. Showing that was not at all the case. They were smart and they were resourceful and they were doing the best with the information of the time. Now there are “woo woo” things that are not quite easy to explain that pop up from time to time…but isn’t that just a mystery of life that makes things interesting?
4 stars - A really interesting read that I would recommend to anyone interested in the subject.
April 25, 2020
If you want to know about folk medicine in Southern Appalachia, this is the who, what, and where source! It is a valuable treasure of mountain medicine! A very well-researched book, it should be part of your Americana collection. Treatments and healers are fully described, as well as beliefs and customs. Final chapter successfully transitions folk medicine with modern medicine.
May 14, 2019
Very informative. Traditional medicine does not always work for me so I am always on the look out for alternatives. I gleaned a few new ideas but many of these I had already learned as a child in the hills of Kentucky.
June 19, 2019
Well researched and well written.
November 6, 2022
It was great
March 31, 2025
A comprehensive look at folk medicine in Southern Appalachia.
May 11, 2013
Pretty good book that shows not only traditional folk remedies, but where many medical superstitions that still pervade American culture come from. For example, why we think that cold and rain cause illness. Knowing about the miasmatic theory and 4 humors theory from the 1700s and ancient Greece respectively is essential in understanding folk medicine and what these people were thinking at the time. Of course there are some "cures" like passing a baby around a table leg that are difficult to figure out the origin of.
January 5, 2011
Dude, whoever took the notes in the margins of this allegedly "new" book that I bought (thanks, internet) is a not only obnoxious in their style of notation, but also a total dingus.
January 14, 2013
Great information in an easy to read format - very cool to see what Knoxville and the surrounding area was like back when folk medicine was practiced.
May 1, 2017
It is a great book to read
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews