Assamese Cultural Narratives of Health, Illness and Healing

This present study was undertaken to understand the existing Assamese society beliefs and practices in relation to various illnesses such as jaundice and chicken pox. A purposive or judgmental sampling technique was adopted to select the subjects for the study. Data was collected from elderly subjects who had good knowledge about indigenous beliefs and practices of health and illnesses with the age group for the study considered at 50 and above for both genders. From the study, we find that most of the people strongly believed that health related issues can be cured with all the traditional form of practices or home remedies. The study found numerous believes and practices where some are safe and have scientific validation while some do not. We also find that these practices have been prevalent since time immemorial in the Assamese society, to the point that people tend to seek solutions from local ‘medicinemen’ rather than visit modern doctors. Though some practices have scientific validation, some are purely based on superstitious beliefs and might cause more harm than good if there are not enough interventions to remove ignorance among the people still adhering to such practices.