Early Evolution of Medicine

ABSTRACT: Animals and especially higher non human primates exhibit a form of medicine but it does not qualify as an ethno-medicine, which refers to conscious, intentional behaviors motivated by a complex of ideas, beliefs, and social practices about sickness and healing.  Early Homo Sapiens surely did exhibit an ethno-medicine since archaeological studies and ethnographies of their best contemporary exemplars, peoples of small scale family and village level societies (e.g., hunter gatherers, sedentary plant and animal domesticators), amply document a cultural and institutional approach to sickness and healing.  Milestones in the early evolution of medicine took place in between these two points in the evolutionary continuum, during the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition in the Eurasian landmass with the emergence of language, cognition, and culture as we know it.  This talk will discuss these issues and provide a framework for analyzing the terrain and landmarks of the early evolution of medicine.