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Reviewed by:
  • Remedies and Rituals: Folk Medicine in Norway and the New Land
  • Erika Brady
Kathleen Stokker . Remedies and Rituals: Folk Medicine in Norway and the New Land. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2007. xii + 337 pp. Ill. $29.95 (ISBN-10: 0-87351-576-5, ISBN-13: 978-0-87351-576-4).

Once upon a time, scholarship concerning folk medical practice consisted of broad generalizations and simple lists of "cures": tobacco for bee stings, onion poultice for bronchial congestion, honey and lemon juice for coughs. In recent years, researchers such as David Hufford, Bonnie Blair O'Connor, and Anthony Cavender have worked toward a more comprehensive approach, examining complex vernacular health belief systems existing within groups and communities. Remedies and Rituals: Folk Medicine in Norway and the New Land is a sensitive and comprehensive exploration of Norwegian folk medical practice as it developed in rural regions and villages of Norway, and as it was adapted by immigrants to North America.

Stokker's account is readable enough to appeal to nonspecialists but is by no means "folk medicine lite." Her research is extensive. Among her most admirable accomplishments is offering a history of the ways folk medicine represents a living, evolving body of knowledge and practice—not just as a result of the change in resources and circumstances experienced by immigrants but throughout the documented history of folk medicine in Norway, extending back to the Middle Ages. All too often, folk medicine is portrayed as a kind of timeless survival from a more primitive era, when in fact—as Stokker demonstrates—practice evolves in response to changing needs, materials, and knowledge.

Also admirable is the author's resistance to the portrayal of the remedies and rituals as free-standing entities, independent of practitioners. Based on extensive historical and archival research, her account portrays the intricate interrelationships and conflicts that existed among what would now be called "health care providers." Almost as rare in rural Norway as in the prairies of the northern Midwest, trained physicians competed and sometimes collaborated with quasi-professional healers, devotees of black-book sorcery, purveyors of commercial and homemade remedies, and other nonconventional practitioners who were often regarded as more trustworthy and credible than representatives of formal medicine. Particularly poignant was the dilemma of pastors and their wives, who were often called [End Page 950] upon to provide medical care and advice despite their acknowledged lack of experience and training. Stokker provides compelling portraits of many of these healers, sometimes in the context of legal prosecution that brought the failures —and successes—to light.

Aside from a few minor matters of terminology and interpretation, I have only one quibble with this excellent book—and it is a matter of format, rather than content. A handsomely produced volume with wonderful archival illustrations, it nonetheless displays a puzzling design element in which portions of text are set off by a consistent graphic element that looks like a stylized leaf. Initially I thought this device was employed to indicate specific remedies—an alternative to a sidebar. As I read further, however, the use of the device broadened to the point where it was difficult to discern any dependable pattern. I found its use more distracting than enlightening.

With Remedies and Rituals: Folk Medicine in Norway and the New Land, Kathleen Stokker offers an important contribution to this area of scholarship in a work that not only richly documents the wide ranges of practices and practitioners in Norway and America but also offers an invaluable glimpse into the transformation of day-to-day life of an ethnic group in transition from the Old World to the New. In its thoroughness, integrity, and unmistakable affection, her work represents a kind of pioneer effort in itself, mirroring the accomplishment of the sturdy individuals whose ways she represents. [End Page 951]

Erika Brady
Western Kentucky University
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