Practice of Traditional Bonesetters (TBS) and People’s Decisions to Seek Treatment for Fractures from TBS Among the Frafras of Northern Ghana

Using traditional and biomedical systems in times of fractures is a common phenomenon in contemporary Ghana. This paper documents the practices of Traditional Bonesetters (TBS) and the decisions people make to use TBS services to treat fractures in the ethnomedical context. Drawing from interviews with and observations of ten TBS, and interviews with 20 nonpractitioners, this study provides a descriptive account of traditional bone-setting. Results indicate that traditional bone-setting is based on knowledge that practitioners learn and pass on through word of mouth and apprenticeship training from one generation to another. Treatment methods involve manual manipulation to achieve anatomical alignment, massaging, immobilisation, and applying certain substances that have bone healing powers. These methods are similar to those that biomedical practitioners use to treat patients with fractures. However, in exceptional cases, TBS use symbolic rituals to deal with supernatural forces that play a role in causing injury. People subscribe to TBS because practitioners are easily accessible and hence provide prompt service. They also patronise TBS because of cheaper costs and their trust and belief in the efficacy of TBS methods. Although Ghanaians have already mentally integrated traditional bone-setting and biomedical practice, the two (health care) systems are yet to be formally combined. This research can be the meeting point for possible biomedical training for TBS and vice versa and facilitate the integration of traditional bone-setting with biomedicine in the trajectory of the health care system.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Anthropology

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Arts

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Alika, Nerius

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Mather, Charles Maurice

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Mather, Charles Maurice
• Apentiik, Rowland Caesar
• Stapleton, Timothy
• Venkataraman, Vivek

• Medical Anthropology
• Ethnomedical practice

Statement dc:rights

• University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

https://doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/43358

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ucalgary.scholaris.ca:1880/118516