Category Archives: Folk medicine

Dock Leaf: A Stinging Nettle Remedy

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Richardson, TX
Performance Date: April 30, 2021
Primary Language: English

Main piece: Stinging nettle is a plant that stings a lot when you touch it, and leaves like welts and stuff – it’s nasty, but there’s like knowledge that there’s this plant called Dock Leaf, that you can use and it will reduce the stinging from a nettle if you just rub the leaves on wherever you were affected by the plant. 

I think that they just happen to grow together, like they just grow side by side. I mean, nobody plants nettle. I think it’s just a natural occurrence that, for whatever reason, those two plants just like to grow next to each other, so you can usually find Dock Leaf if you find nettle. 

Background: O’s father grew up in Malmesbury, a town in Wiltshire, England. O has been visiting her grandparents and aunt, who still live there, once every year or two since as long as she can remember. Her father and grandparents taught her about the dock leaf remedy.

Context: O started talking about visiting her family in rural England, and how she and her brother would entertain themselves there, as there isn’t much to do. She recounted a particular story where her younger brother got stinging nettle all over his body, and they did not have enough dock leaves to help him negate the pain he was feeling, but she has engaged successfully with the practice before.

Analysis: Dock leaf is a folk medicine that arises from the existence of stinging nettle. Dock leaves and stinging nettle grow in similar environments, and it has been found that rubbing dock leaves against one’s skin releases a soothing moisture (kind of like aloe). Stinging nettle and dock leaf both grow in abundance in that particular area of England, so it makes sense that other plants surrounding stinging nettle could be sought after/experimented with for a cure. O and her family continue to use dock leaf to combat nettle stings, both because dock leaf is often found nearby (instead of having to go back to the house to grab other medicine), and it can abate some of the immediate effects more quickly. (For another version, see Sutter, May 18, 2020, “Stinging Nettle Plant Remedy”, USC Folklore Archives).

Full moons, storms, and women in labor

Nationality: American
Age: 52
Occupation: Retired Nurse
Residence: Lancaster, CA
Performance Date: April 23, 2021
Primary Language: English

Context: 

My informant, RW, is my mother. She was a labor and delivery nurse in a Dallas hospital in the 1990s. I asked her to tell me if there were any superstitions or rituals she learned working as a nurse. This piece was collected during an informal interview at home. I refer to myself as SW in the text.

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Main Text:

RW: “If you were ever working during a full moon or a stormy night, you knew it was going to be a busy shift.”

SW: “Why?”

RW: “I don’t know why the full moon. The thunderstorms was probably because of barometric pressure. I don’t know… And you never, ever, EVER say ‘it’s slow tonight’. If anyone started to say it was slow everyone starts screaming at them going ‘Ah noooo! Why?’ And it always happened, there’d be a giant influx after that.”

SW: “Who was the first person who told you about the full moon thing, or the thunderstorm thing?”

RW: “My nurse preceptor at Parkland. They thought it was something to do with the gravitational pull or something I don’t know.”

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Analysis:

The fact that saying something can make it come true is an example of performative speech. It’s interesting that even in as scientific of a job as working as a nurse, folklore is still very prevalent and spreads. Despite everything they know pointing to the lack of influence of full moons on how many women go into labor, the belief still persists. This probably is a very old belief having to do with lunar cycles and how they have been tied to menstruation and fertility for many cultures. There is also still an element of labor that is uncontrollable despite all the scientific knowledge we have, so folklore fills the gaps in what science can’t explain.

Ways to Induce Labor

Nationality: American
Age: 52
Occupation: Retired Nurse
Residence: Lancaster, CA
Performance Date: April 27, 2021
Primary Language: English

Context: 

My informant, RW, is my mother. She was a labor and delivery nurse in a Dallas hospital in the 1990s. I asked her to tell me if there were any superstitions or rituals she learned working as a nurse. She told me there were lots of different ideas about how to induce labor. This piece was collected during an informal interview at home.

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Main Text:

RW: “I learned a lot of this during my nursing residency at Parkland hospital. And there’s a whole giant hispanic population there, and there’s lots of things they do to induce labor. Well the midwives will tell you that perineal massage with olive oil, or any kind of essential oil will help. Um… you know rose hips, drinking tea with rose hips will induce labor. Um… of course, any time on a full moon, if you’re lucky enough to do that, will help. You know, walking obviously helps. Sex helps. Um… oh nipple massage or stimulation, that helps. And because that actually does make your body produce pitocin, on that one. There’s some things that the hispanic women would do… weird things like laying metal spoons across their belly. Not sure why they thought that would help, but…”

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Analysis:

Working in a labor and delivery unit, it’s not surprising that my mom picked up lots of folk medicine surrounding how to induce labor. As she mentioned, some of it has been scientifically proven. However, there’s also probably an element of wanting to do what you know culturally, or what has been repeated by your own mother. Childbirth can be stressful, and having rituals that your family has said would help may help women to relax and calm down more than any medical effect it may have. This can be shown because, as RW said, many of this practices are associated with a specific culture.

Fertility Rock

Nationality: Asian
Age: 56
Occupation: Teacher for the Deaf and Blind
Residence: Honolulu, HI
Performance Date: 4/23/21
Primary Language: English

Background

Informant is the mother of the Interviewer, she has been the mother of the Interviewer since the interviewer has existed and has raised them ever since.

Context

Informant discusses a folk practice that is supposed to aid in fertility that she participated in. This practice is attributed to why the Interviewer exists in the first place.

Transcript

Informant: “How about the one that relates to my getting pregnant?”

Interviewer: “…what?”

Informant: “So there’s uh, there’s a fertility rock, that uh, what’s it called? I forgot what it was called… It’s like a fertility rock on Moloka’i, so when I couldn’t get pregnant, you know we found out about that, so we went to Moloka’i with Uncle dean, and I went, oh the Phallic Rock! So I went onto the phallic rock and I was like I need to get pregnant, so I like-”

(Informant bucks her hips and twirls a fake lasso, like she is riding a raging bull.)

Interviewer: “You rode the, th-the dick rock?”

Informant: “And I got pregnant after, It’s just one of those things, I had Katie after.”

Interviewer: “Wow.”

Thoughts

    Rocks in Hawaii have a great spiritual presence. They can hold energies from fertility, to the gods, to souls of the deceased. You’re not supposed to move rocks from island to island, as you will be cursed and have to seek out either a Kahuna to dispel the bad spirits or return the rock to its original location, leaving offerings of beer and food to please the spirits. I have encountered spiritually significant rocks in my life, but have never actively sought them out for spiritual or personal reasons. Hearing that my mother utilized the help of one of these rocks was interesting, as I did not know she believed in Hawaiian traditions before that. I am not convinced of the effectiveness of spirit rocks, but I respect the practice and the rich culture behind their existence.

Upset Stomach Remedies

Nationality: American
Age: 53
Occupation: N/A
Residence: Chicago, IL
Performance Date: 05/03/2021
Primary Language: English

Main Piece:

“My grandma would tell me to drink prune juice if you are constipated. Or if your dog has stomach issues feed them rice and real chicken instead of dog kibble.”

Background:

“The informant is a 53-year-old woman living in Chicago, IL. She has never tried the prune juice in her adult years so cannot speak to its effectiveness, but does use the dog remedy, which does in fact work. Her grandmother was Italian and either born there and immigrated to the US at a young age or was born in the US soon after her parents immigrated. She remembers any time she had an upset stomach, her grandmother would make her and her sister drink prune juice.

Context:

The informant is my mother. I acquired this information during a Facetime call with her, on which I asked if she had any folk knowledge or beliefs.

My Thoughts:

I think that these folk recipes are classic examples of people using un-official knowledge to cure illnesses. Upon some research of my own on google, it appears that prune juice is now advertised for alleviating constipation. I doubt the knowledge would’ve been as easily accessible in the 1970s. I think that is also is interesting to think about the transition where people might’ve been more inclined to use prune juice as a remedy before now most people might just use a laxative.