Evaluating Biomedical and Ethnomedical Health Care Models in Ghana

This article describes some of the problems inherent in studying the therapeutic efficacy of ritual healing. It then argues for a biocultural evolutionary approach that takes seriously the healing claims of local practitioners by incorporating the effects of psychosocial variables in sickness and healing. It concludes by arguing that many key features of Asante indigenous ritual healing ceremonies enhance and exacerbate aspects of the psychosocial context in therapeutically efficacious ways.