Tag Archives: folk medicine

Put some “Backer” on it

Background:

The informant, JB, is my father who is 49 years old. My family lives in the same small town I grew up in, Huntsville, TN. I was under the impression that this home remedy was universal until I mentioned it to my college friends, and I was met with bizarre and confused faces. This remedy is not exclusive to my family and is widely known and used in my town.

Main Piece:

Interviewer- Hey dad when I was little, or even now, if one of us got stung by a wasper (wasp).

JB- (Laughs) Yeah, I know it sounds gross, but it works. When you’d get stung, I would get backer (tobacco) outta my lip and hold it on there until it was numb.

Interviewer- Ew, I can still picture it, but it did help. So how did you know to do that, like who taught you?

JB- I don’t remember ever specifically taught. My dad would do it to us as kids and like you said it works so.

Analysis:

To my surprise, the common fix-all that was chew tobacco was not universal, but actually a form of folk medicine. The origin is unclear, but when I searched it on the internet, quite a few websites cited nicotine as a home remedy for stings and noted it strong numbing power. Perhaps I am biased, but this folk medicine screams Southern roots. Chewing tobacco has always been a staple in every Southern man’s daily routine, along with the skoal ring marks in the back pockets of their Levi’s. So, it makes sense that a long time ago a kid was crying over a bee sting and a nearby dad or grandpa thought to apply some “backer” from his lip. This demonstrates the closeness of Southern families, and fathers in blue-collar culture, mine included. Not every type of dad would get the dip-spit out of his mouth and put it on his kid’s sting instead of grabbing something out of the cabinet. However, in the South, specifically blue-collar communities, there is powerful “do it yourself” mentality. This mixed with the extreme closeness and perhaps cultural tolerance for things perceived as “gross”, results in folk-medicine. It is much harder to imagine businessmen fathers having the same first instinct as my father, and all family men in my town.

Nausea Remedy — Ginger Ale and Saltine Crackers

Context :

SM is a 20 year old environmental studies major at USC. She grew up in Dallas, Texas. Although her family took to modern medicine, dabbling in home remedies wasn’t uncommon.

Text :

“If I had any sort of stomach problem as a child, my dad would make me drink ginger ale and eat saltine crackers because it would cure my nausea. I can’t get over that nauseous feeling without living off of ginger ale and saltine crackers anymore.”

Analysis :

Folk medicine is actually a really strong type of folklore. Although the remedies don’t always work, they have been around for hundreds of years and have implemented themselves into everyday practices. SM, like many other Americans, were told to drink ginger ale or eat saltine crackers when they felt nauseous because it would help soothe their stomach. In a way, folk medicine “works” because it evokes the placebo effect. When someone truly believes they are getting better because they did something, even though it actually has zero effect on them, that’s the placebo effect. SM’s brain tricked her into believing that one of the only remedies for her stomach ache was to drink ginger ale and saltine crackers, even though that is medically proven to help.

Vicks Vaporub

Context 

RH is my roommate’s boyfriend here at USC. He was born in Atlanta but was raised most of his life in Brooklyn, New York. His parents are Dominican American and were born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. 

Text

DO (interviewer): Being of Latino descent or more specifically Caribbean descent are there any medical treatments or remedies that your family has?

RH: Yeah. 

RH: I think the one I can think of the most is one that probably all Latino people have. It’s Vicks. You know. Vicks solves everything to these people. 

DO: Interesting. Can you talk more about how it is used medicinally? 

RH: Sure. For my family it was like an all over thing. You’d put some in your nose if you can’t breathe. My mom would also make us rub some on our feet and then put socks on. Then we’d sleep with the socks and those two things were like holy grail. “Te vas a sentir mejor.” “You’ll feel better is what she would say to me basically. 

DO: And how do you feel about it? Do you think this was actually a remedy or do you think it was more of a myth?

RH: Mmm. I don’t know. I think that specifically the nose thing definitely worked. Like it would burn when you put some in your nose because it’s like cooling. But because of that I think the boogers would come out or I don’t know what would happen, but I would feel less stuffy nosed. But the sock thing I don’t know. I don’t really know the point of that one or what it did, so it could’ve been more BS than the nose thing. I think it’s just because my folks don’t like going to the doctors. 

Analysis

In the Latino community, Vicks Vaporub is often used to help recover when someone is sick with a cold or the flu. While it has no ties to a specific Latinx culture, this can be considered an essential part of Latinx folklore. If you ask numerous people of Latinx descent, you will find that this is a common medicinal folklore practice that many believe works. It is most popular with the older generations in our culture, as reflected in the informant’s hesitation to say that this entirely acts as a remedy for the flu or a common cold. There may not be any scientific evidence that Vicks Vaporrub actually helps in any capacity, but the Latinx community still uses it religiously when under the weather. In our culture, there is, unfortunately, sometimes a lack of trust in doctors or fear of miscommunication/misdiagnosis. The informant believes this medicinal folklore comes from the yearning to self-heal because of these fears and lack of trust. 

Moxibustion (艾灸)

–Informant Info–

Nationality: Taiwanese American

Age:40

Occupation: Technition

Residence: Los Angeles, California

Date of Performance/Collection: 2022

Primary Language: English

Other Language(s): Cantonese, Thai

(Notes-The informant will be referred AM to as and the interviewer as K)

Background info: AM a Taiwanese American techint8ion who was born and raised in California to Taiwanese parents, which is where she learned of this folk medicine. She also practiced it as a child and continues to do so today with her own family.

K: Ok uh what medicine are you going to be telling me about, where did you learn about it, and why or under uh what circumstances were this medicine used?

AM: Yeah it’s called uh 艾灸 or I’ve heard it be called Moxibustion in English. Uh, my mom would take me to the doctor to have this done when I started getting menstrual pain or if my Qi was uh blocked.

K: Ok! Whenever you’re ready you can describe it

AM: Yeah it’s simple uh so you lay down and then these uh little mugwort things are placed on your body, they kinda resemble uh incense cones. So they’re burned, and then this really smelly smoke comes out and you just lay there breathing it in, and then your pain goes away. It’s also just really relaxing because of the heat.

Interpretation:
I wish I was able to hear about more traditional folk medicine because of how interesting it is. I wasn’t able to do much research on the actual scientific possibilities as to why this works, but the important thing is that it does help people. I believe at least that as long as folk medicine isn’t claiming to heal cancer (think of the fruitarian diet, for example), it’s incredibly useful and helps people. That is an important bias to note as well. Folk medicine is incredibly common in many East Asian cultures, and there are thousands of different traditions so it would be incredibly difficult to collect them all, especially (as the informant would later note) nearly every household as their own “concoctions” to treat common illness and pain.

El Vaporu Magico – The Magical VapoRub

Informant: My informant is my Mexican mom, who grew up in Puebla, Mexico. While she stayed with her mom for about 16 years, she learned many remedies to keep herself away from developing colds, and flu, and even erase bruises. My mom stated that the reason why she turns towards magical Vicks/mentolato is that she has a stronger belief in home remedies than in actual prescribed medicine. 

Context:  This conversation occurred when I asked my mom why she always brought extra Vaporu, when we already had some at home. 

Main Text: “Cuando yo crecí mi mama siempre me dijo que cuando me sintiera mal que siempre tuviera un vaporub a la mano. Ella siempre me decía que esto era mágico y de lo mejor porque siempre ayudaba a mi mama con sus migrañas, moretones, y cuando tenía síntomas de algún resfriado. Lo que hacía mi mamá específicamente es que nos ponía un chingo de vapor en mis pies y me ponía calcetines. Y luego me ponía detrás de la espalda y enfrente del pecho. Para mantenerlo caliente entre medio de mi ropa me ponía papel. Al final antes que nos acostáramos a dormir nos ponía un poco alrededor de la nariz para que pudiéramos respirar mejor. Sabes, mi mama no solo me enseño a usar esto para resfriados pero también para la piel y infecciones. Si te pones poquito de esto en tu barro es más que seguro que se te quite al otro dia, Por ultimo, si te duele el oído lo que tienes que haces es agarrar un algodón, ponerle un poco de vaporub y ponerlo en oído.” 

Translation: “Growing up my mom always told me that when I felt bad I should always have a vaporubby my side.. She always told me that this was magical and the best because it always helped my mom with her migraines, bruises, and when she had cold symptoms. What my mom did specifically is she put a lot of  thi product on the sole of my feet and with socks on me. And then she would put some behind my back and in front of myst chest. To keep the warmth, my mom would put paper between my clothes. In the end, before we went to sleep, she put a little around our noses so that we could breathe better. You know, my mom taught me not only to use this for colds but also for the skin and infections. If you put a little of this on your pimples, it is more than certain that it would go away the next day. Finally, another use was for infection. If your ear hurts, what you had  have to do was take a cotton ball, put a little VapoRub on it and put it in your ear.”

Analysis: It is interesting how this product, which was not initially created to be used for bruises, nor for infection has become a huge part of the Mexican culture. I believe it just showcases, how my mom and many other who use this product have become accustomed to use it and has become integrated so much into their health lifestyles. So much to the point that many rather than going to a doctor, now rely on VapoRub. I for one have no problem in relying in folk medicine, because I also have the belief that VapoRub fixes almost all. I myself, coming from a low-income family, rely on this product so much. Why? Because when a member gets sick, we pull out the VapoRub. VapoRub is efficient, cheap and lifesaver for many low-income families.