Objective

To reveal the presence and activities of healers from funerary contexts.

Materials

Ethnohistoric and ethnographic textual descriptions and the bioarchaeological record.

Methods

A synthesis of human remains, grave contexts, and funerary objects.

Conclusions

The capacity to act as a “healer” forms part of the social identity of a diverse range of uniquely specialized individuals cross-culturally who also perform a variety of other roles associated with transcendent ideologies, beliefs, and religion. They are ambivalent, capable of doing both good and ill. They defend the health and well-being of the individual and the community but, using the same knowledge, are also implicated in attacks on individuals and groups within and outside their communities. This ambivalence, combined with a lack of defined institutional organization and the great diversity of medico-religious healers in the recent ethnographic past and historically, makes the identification of such individuals in the archaeological record controversial, but they are present.

Significance

Not only are healers identifiable in the archaeological record, but their practices disproportionately influence it, acting as a powerful complement to historical sources for the development of medicine and medical knowledge.

Limitations

Published literature is of variable detail, which means that healing practices and healers are under-appreciated and under-represented in reconstructions of past societies.

Suggestions for Further Research

Application of archaeothanatological approaches to recording and synthesis of the funerary context with the remains of the deceased can be used to identify objects and practices used in healing that have been more recently superseded by scientific approaches to health.

中文翻译：

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不成文的医疗史：仪式治疗师及其在有文字之前的过去活动的证据

客观的

从丧葬环境中揭示治疗师的存在和活动。

材料

民族历史和民族志文字描述和生物考古记录。

方法

人类遗骸、坟墓背景和随葬品的综合。

结论

作为“治疗者”的能力构成了跨文化的各种独特专业个人的社会身份的一部分，他们还扮演着与超然意识形态、信仰和宗教相关的各种其他角色。他们是矛盾的，能做善事也能做坏事。他们捍卫个人和社区的健康和福祉，但使用相同的知识，也涉及对其社区内外的个人和团体的攻击。这种矛盾心理，加上缺乏明确的机构组织，以及近代民族志和历史上医学宗教治疗师的巨大多样性，使得考古记录中对这些人的识别存在争议，但他们确实存在。

意义

不仅可以在考古记录中识别出治疗师的身份，而且他们的做法对其产生了不成比例的影响，成为对医学和医学知识发展的历史资源的有力补充。

限制

已发表的文献细节参差不齐，这意味着治疗实践和治疗师在过去社会的重建中没有得到充分重视和代表性不足。

进一步研究的建议

应用考古学方法来记录和合成死者遗骸的葬礼背景，可用于识别最近被科学健康方法取代的用于治疗的对象和实践。