Extra Post- Ancient Chamorro Medicine

Ancient Chamorro Medicine (AMOT)

Ancient Chamorro medicine has to some extend survived until modern day. It is known that today there are still highly respected older men and women who practice traditional medicine. Men are called suruhanus and women are called suruhanas. These words derived from the Spanish language. These skillful men and women are trained by apprenticeship from the older relative of the same sex. They use herbs, magic, message, and their personal power to cure the sick. There are more suruhanas than suruhanus, but each village in the Mariana Islands has at least one or two. Their main purpose in the modern days is to promote good health throughout the community. Many of these women healers in the past tended to specialize. For instance, some were good at taking care of fevers, others set broken limbs, and some were midwives. 

These healers are thought to have special calling for healing. Practitioners pass their healing knowledge on to a relative who seems to have the intelligence and the calling. For instance, a breach-born baby is believed to have a special aptitude for becoming a healer, because breach births were believed to have been caused by the presence of a ghost when the baby was born or the mother saw a ghost while she was pregnant. It is believed that the suruhanus possess a special connection with the spirit world and often have ghost partner who helps them cure their patients. 

According to traditional healers, illness can be caused by spiritual means or by natural causes. The spiritual illness could be caused by evil spirits or by sorcery. In the past men usually healed the spiritual sicknesses and women cured the natural illnesses with herbs and massage. However, today women and men treat both types of illnesses. 

Modern suruhanus categorize illnesses as hot or cold sicknesses. According to this theory, if a disease is hot, cold medicine is prescribed. Gaso'so, the soap plant, is an example of a cold medicine. After a healer diagnoses the illness, fresh plants are collected to cure it. The medicinal value of plants is well known by pharmacists, but most of the plants in Guam have not been studied by scientists. However, most experts are sure that the plants chosen at least contain many important vitamins. For example, the banyan tree root sap has proven to stop the flow of blood when placed on a wound. Further research could probably confirm the medicinal value of many of the plants used by the healers. 

After they find the plants, the healers apply different treatments using them. The traditional stone mortar and pestle are still used to crush the plants. Then the crushed plants are often boiled into a tea together with the root and the bark of the plant. Drops of the medicine are squeezed into the mouth of the patient or simply drunk.  Magical ashes from human sweat, white chicken feather, and palm fronds are also used in treatments.

Suruhana feeding feeding a sick baby with herbal
medicine. http://www.slideshare.net/thelmadevlin/suruhana

A massage is frequently used to relieve pain. In ancient times as many as four people would massage a patient by walking on the painful area. The messages were very vigorous and pounding. Today some healers actually hide rocks in their hands and others use the innermost heart of the banana tree trunk as a small club to pound on a patient. 

In all cases the healer tells the patient, what is wrong, and takes active scientific, magical, and religious steps to cure it. Through these actions and because of their personal mystique, healers instill confidence in the patient. By having their anxiety relived, the patient is able to generate his or her own self-healing powers. 

Some of the cures for natural illnesses include:

Headache caused by blood in the head is cured by soaking a cloth in vinegar and placing it on the patient's forehead; or massage the forehead with coconut oil; or tie a very young banana leaf to the forehead

Headache caused by gas in the stomach--> cured by drinking a glass of water to which two tablespoons of vinegar and one tablespoon of sugar have been added or squeeze soap plant leaves between the palms and drink a small amount. 

Some cures for supernatural illnesses include:

Finger-like marks on the body are thought to be caused by the ancient ghost. These marks are red or brown and start out yellow and become purple. These marks can be prevented by rubbing onions and salt on the body. Cures for this condition include the application of urine on the mark. Preferably, the urine should be from the patient's first-born male relative. 

The ancient Chamorros claimed they had a cure for every disease, even before the Europeans arrived. There could have been some truth to this because only the healthy ones could have survived the long voyages to Guam.