Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Medicine Man |
Medicine ManNoun1. A Native American shaman. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Sorcerer | Warlock, charmer, exorcist, mage; cunning man, medicine man; Shaman, figure flinger, ecstatica; medium, clairvoyant, fortune teller; mesmerist; deus ex machina; soothsayer. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The primary function of these "medicine men" (who are not always male) is to secure the help of the spirit world, including the Great Spirit (Wakan Tanka in the language of the Lakota Sioux), for the benefit of the community. They go into what Carlos Castanada evocatively called "a separate reality" to communicate with the denizens of this spirit world and to secure thereby the aid and/or information needed by the community when it faces some critical challenge that goes beyond its own natural resources.
Sometimes the help sought can be for the sake of healing disease, sometimes it can be for the sake of healing the psyche, sometimes the goal is to promote harmony between human groups or between humans and nature. So the term "medicine man" is not entirely inappropriate, but it greatly oversimplifies and also skews the depiction of the people whose role in society complements that of the chief. These people are not the Native American equivalent of the Chinese "barefoot doctors", herbalists, or of the emergency medical technicians who ride our rescue vehicles.
To be recognized as the one who performs this function of bridging between the natural world and the spiritual world for the benefit of the community, an individual must be validated in his role by that community. The Native American tradition has much in common with the world-wide religious practice called shamanism, and many students of this phenomenon believe that Native American cultures share this cultural feature as well as other cultural features with the people living on the other side of the Bering Strait. There are many indications from both archaeology and anthropology that the shamanic form of religious experience dates all the way back to the paleolithic hunter-gather societies.
Entering into the "separate reality" involves what the Western world would call a trance state. In childhood or adolescence, some individuals manifest signs of a facility for this kind of activity. Their community may encourage them to take special spiritual instruction from the current "medicine man" so that he will have a helper and eventually a replacement. Various hallucinogenic agents may be used to help in the case of individuals who are not so constitutionally gifted. Drummming and other such sensory inputs also may be used to help induce trance, or, from the standpoint of the "medicine man", to enter the spirit world. In many communities, the position of "medicine man" is passed down from father to son. In the more general religious and social phenomenon called shamanism, there are strong indications that the earliest shamans may have been women, so it is not unthinkable that a female human being could perform this religious and social function.
One of the best sources of information on this subject is the story of a Lakota (Sioux) wicasa wakan ("medicine man") recorded in a book produced with his cooperation called Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions, by John Fire Lame Deer. On a broader scale, Mircea Eliade's Shamanism puts the whole area of religious experience and practice into a broad historical and ethnographic context.
Note: The term wicasa wakan is pronounced, approximately, as "wih-chah-shah wah-kahn". Sometimes "wicasa" is written "wic'as'a" to indicate that the letters "c" and "s" should both receive accent marks.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Medicine man."
Crosswords: Medicine Man |
| English words defined with "medicine man": rainmaker. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | Medicine Man (1963) The Medicine Man (1933) Some Medicine Man (1916) The New Medicine Man (1914) | |
Song Titles | Medicine Man (performing artist: Manfred Mann) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Theater & Movies |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | A medicine man administering to a patient. / [Seth Eastman]. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |  | [A medicine man curing a patient.] / Capt. Eastman U.S.A. del. C. Schuessele lith. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |
 | The Medicine man / p. Credit: Library of Congress; photo by William J. Carpenter.. |  | A medicine man curing a patient / Capt. S. Eastman, U.S.A., del. ; C. Schuessele lith. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Eskimo medicine man and sick boy. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Baby Lone, Kickapoo medicine man, half-length portrait, facing right, wrapped in blanket. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Chief Two Moon, wealthy Indian medicine man from Waterbury, Conn., photographed at the Lincoln Memorial on the observation platform of his palatial touring bus ... Credit: Library of Congress. |  | A medicine man curing a patient / Capt. Eastman, U.S.A. del. ; C. Schuessele lith. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
medicine man | 104 |
medicine man movie | 12 |
native american medicine man | 9 |
indian medicine man | 8 |
medicine man sean connery | 6 |
navajo medicine man | 5 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "medicine man"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | magjistar (conjurer, conjuror, enchanter, fascinator, mage, magician, magus, sorcerer, thaumaturge, Warlock, wizard), shtrigë (Beldam, beldame, cummer, gorgon, hag, hex, lamia, medicaster, necromancer, night-hag, termagant, witch). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | العراف الطبيب المشعوذ. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | шаман (shaman, voodoo, witch doctor), магьосник (mage, magician, necromancer, sorcerer, theurgist, voodoo, wise man, wiz, wizard). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | kouzelník (conjurer, conjuror, enchanter, illusionist, mage, magician, magus, sorcerer, spellbinder, wise man, witchdoctor, wizard). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | sorcier. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | medizinmann (medico, quack, sawbones, witchdoctor). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | רופא אליל (mountebank, quack, witchdoctor). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | varázsló (cole prophet, conjurer, conjuror, enchanter, magician, powwow, pow-wow, sorcerer, Warlock, wizard), sámán (shaman), kuruzsló (charlatan, healer, pow-wow, quack, quack doctor, quacksalver, water doctor). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | stregone (sorcerer, Warlock, witch doctor, wizard). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Papago | siwani (chief medicine man). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | edicinemay anmay feiticeiro (archimage, magician, powwow, sorcerer, warlock, witchcraft, witchdoctor, wizard). (various references) vrãjitor-doctor. (various references) знахарь (charlatan, doctor, medicaster, medicineman, mountebank, powwow, quack, quacksalver, voodoo, voodoo doctor, voodoo priest, witch doctor, witch-doctor). (various references) vrač (diviner, fortune teller, mage, medicineman, sorcerer, witch doctor). (various references) hechizador (sorcerer), hechicero (charming, glamorous, glamourous, sorcerer, witchdoctor), curandero (charlatan, medicaster, quack, quack doctor, witchdoctor), chamán (shaman), brujo médico. (various references) medicinman (witch doctor). (various references) sihirbaz hekim, büyücü doktor (powwow, voodoo doctor, voodoo priest). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Misspellings | |
"Medicine Man" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: medecine man. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-d-e-e-i-i-m-m-n-n" | |
-2 letters: immanence, imminence. | |
-3 letters: decennia, enneadic, indamine, medicine. | |
-4 letters: adenine, amidine, diamine, enamine, endemic, indamin, indican, menaced, minicam. | |
-5 letters: aedine, aidmen, amidic, amidin, aminic, ammine, anemic, canine, canned, cannie, cinema, daimen, decane, demean, diamin, edenic, encina, ennead, iceman, icemen, immane, indene, madmen, maiden, maimed, manned, meanie, mediae, median, medina, meinie, menace, minced, minima, niacin, nimmed. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Translations: Modern | 9. Derivations 10. Anagrams 11. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
