A Study on Ethnomedical and Health Practices among the Malayali Tribes of Tamil Nadu

Introduction

Disease and ill health have become significant focuses of human beings since immemorial. Each community has a unique medical system based on ecological conditions, available resources, and cultural norms. It has developed its concept and methods for coping with various diseases and ailments. They have a unique system of treatment and healing that incorporates culturally perceivable ideas, beliefs, herbal medicine, and magico religious practises (MRP). Hence, knowledge of traditional communities’ health and disease has attracted anthropologists’ attention and has become a fascinating subject of anthropology [1, 2].

Health and sickness or diseases are biological concepts. But traits like beliefs, religion, philosophy, education, socio- economic conditions etc. also evaluate how people feel about health and sickness. The health among the tribals and their medical systems always involve social, cultural and environmental issues. People in every society, whether simple or complex, adapt to their environment by combining various biological and socio-cultural resources. The tribal people’s views on health, illness, treatment, and even life and death are as diverse as their culture. As a result, everyone in the tribal culture is expected to follow the established customs that have existed for a long time. The interplay between people and the invisible forces that interfere in human affairs determines their fate as individuals and as a community. The mysterious forces punish men who offend them with sickness, death, or other natural misfortunes. The indigenous people are familiar with various herbal concoctions and lotions used as natural medicines. This indicates that the tribal people had a drug list for treating ailments including malaria, scabies, smallpox, yaws, venereal disorders, intestinal problems, ophthalmology, etc. [3].

One such human need is to lead a healthy life. Health is not just a biological or psychological phenomenon; instead, it is equally a social construction. These socio-cultural parameters surrounding the building of health include lifestyle, food and nutrition, environment, personal hygiene and sanitation. In the same way, the disease also has social construction and recognition. Each tribal group knows the notions of health and illness. These indigenous societies have developed their indigenous methods of treating a disorder. Such an indigenous system is called ethno medicine [4, 5].

Ethnomedicine involves disease causation, material medica and pharmacopoeia. The origin of the word tribe can be traced from the Latin term ‘Tribus’, initially referred to as any the division of societies and recognizable as tribes in the modern sense. In a standard view, it is associated with “primitivism” and “backwardness” [6]. The members of a tribal group refer to themselves as sharing the same name, language, and common territory and are primarily small in number. This study is done among the Malayali tribes. The term Malayali is coined by the combination of the two terms ‘malai’ and ‘ali’. Malai means the hills, and ali means the people or the rulers. That means the people of the hills or the hill people.

Materials and Methods

India has been reported to have the world’s most significant tribal communities [7]. Tribal peoples predominantly reside in rural locations around the nation; most people are illiterate and employed as unskilled labour for meagre wages [8]. The present study was conducted among the Malayalis tribes of Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram area. The Malayali tribes make up 45.05% of all the tribes in Tamil Nadu. Most Malayalis are Tamil-speaking hill farmers who cultivate thinai and samai (types of millet). They originated from the vellala caste of cultivators and moved from Kanchipuram to the hills of southwest Tamil Nadu a few decades ago. Evidence of the Malayali tribe’s migration to the Jawadhu hills was found in Kanchipuram during the Palaeolithic era. The main cuisines of the Malayali tribe include ragi, rice, samai, and millet. Malayalis marry in a variety of ways. The Malayali tribes are meat-eaters who prefer to consume beef, mutton, pig, and rabbit. Men are the only ones who consume alcohol and always drink the regional varieties of alcoholic beverages.

In November and December 2018, a cross-sectional study was carried out in a village in the Villupuram district that was home to members of the Malayali tribes. The town is roughly 170 kilometres from Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, and 36 kilometres west of Pondicherry. This study is a qualitative research conducted to study the customs and habits of another society and culture. The present’s main stress was finding how reality is socially constructed and using participant observation to understand people’s emic perspectives. Unstructured interviews with open general questions were conducted to go into greater depth of data.

Various questions regarding family, literacy, marriage, occupation, and health were asked related to their traditional knowledge of belief systems and the curing of multiple disorders. The questions were asked to understand all aspects of life and how those influence people’s health status and health-seeking behaviour. Secondary data were collected from various sources like census reports, books, gazetteers, articles on health-seeking behaviour and ethnomedical practices published in unpublished writings on Malayali tribes. A general household survey was done among all the 113 houses. The study area covered a total number of 534 individuals of various age groups (Table 1).

Conclusion

Malayalis well understand the concept of health. They link it with the economic condition, nutrition, food habits, work pressure, etc. They also relate it to biological needs. They also differentiate between illness and disease. Their ways of identification of diseases are appreciable. But there is a straight decline in their ethnomedical practices with the emergence of state initiatives, various plans, and schemes. After the working of the PHC and the facilities being provided, the Malayalis’ neglecting attitude toward their traditional medicine is found. The data acquired from the tribes is helpful for future ethnobotany, taxonomy, and establishing connections between plants and people studies.

This study came to a wide range of conclusions regarding the therapeutic herbs employed by the tribes. We might soon lose this wealth of information due to the younger tribes’ lack of interest and propensity to go to cities in search of well-paying jobs.