Talk:Witch doctor

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I created this page for the page Sacred Mushrooms which now is a redirect, do with as you will. GrazingshipIV 23:29, Apr 15, 2004 (UTC)

following was tacked on to the end, sans context:

Witch doctors were said to have eaten the marrow of children to achieve extremely old age. Some were said to have achieved ages of 250-300 years. Witch Doctors were said to have ruled in West Levin, Moore Sawn, South Bostonia, and Garnet Valley.

the places mentioned, with the possible exception of Garnet Valley, do not seem to exist outside this article. is this from a work of fiction? if so, which? i can make no sense of it. 67.68.242.65 06:18, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Negative impact of sangomas

There doesn't seem to be any infomation on the negative impact sangomas may have on South African Society, for example high porofile cases in 2002/3 of babies being raped after sangomas mentioned to aids patients that this would cure them, or how sangomas can often condemn men or women to die after accusing them of being witches. although I'm not against sangomas in principle, this article seems very one sided. gmyoung_98

Gmyoung,

Could you provide some on-line or printed sources for this information? Feel free to add it if you can document it. DBlomgren 03:36, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

Treating Poisoning by Poison Frog

There was an incident maybe 20 yrs ago where a naturalist took treatments from a witch doctor in somewhere like Brazil after being poisoned by touching a poison frog. Doctors advised him that they had no effective treatments, but that witch doctors in the area seemed to be able to help. They did not know what part of the treatements worked, so they told him to undergo the whole bit including the chanting etc. I am trying to find an article on this somewhere. Can anyone help? Carlw4514 (talk) 15:15, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

"First-world" usage

I changed teh line saying "In the first world it usually refers to chiropractors, homeopaths and faith healers" to "In the first world, it is sometimes used derogatory to refer to chiropractors, homeopaths and faith healers". Firstly, when ever I hear the term (and I would expect this would go for others too), my first thought is the traditional medicine men, not contemporay "alt med" practisioners. (When people use it as such, they are generally trying to imply that they are similar). So AFAIK it isn't accurate to say it is "usually" used to refer to alt-med practisioners. Secondly, it needs to be pointed out that such use is derogatory, and not a neutral or positive term. Wardog (talk) 16:25, 11 August 2011 (UTC) .

Yeah, and to me, the term "witch doctor" implies Africa to me. The traditional healers of Native Americans are usually called "medicine man". As far as alt med practitioners, I'm more likely to use "quack". Wschart (talk) 19:20, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

File:Shona witch doctor (Zimbabwe).jpg to appear as POTD soon

Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that File:Shona witch doctor (Zimbabwe).jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on December 14, 2017. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2017-12-14. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page. Thank you. — Chris Woodrich (talk) 03:36, 3 December 2017 (UTC)

Picture of the day

A witch doctor of the Shona people in Zimbabwe, August 1989. Among the Shona, witch doctors, or n'anga, are known as healers who use a combination of herbs, medical/religious advice, and spiritual guidance to heal people. Traditionally, they are believed to have the religious power to tell fortunes, and to change, heal, bless or even kill people.Photograph: Hans Hillewaert

Move discussion in progress

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Witch doctor (disambiguation) which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 03:31, 12 April 2020 (UTC)

Poor essay

For real, this is one of the poorest things I ever read. Instead of getting information about witchdoctors, like main system of thought, roots of beliefs, and ways of treatments, I got a stupid report about albino organ use. And few reported treatments... there is real knowledge available. And if you want to criticise the morals u can do it in a specific section. Very poor to the rate of, you better erase it 😒 212.15.178.16 (talk) 14:41, 14 February 2022 (UTC)

If you have reliable sources about main system of thought, roots of beliefs, bring them. Without that, there is nothing we can do.

And there is nothing "stupid" about a report about albino organ use, only the use itself is stupid (and evil). --Hob Gadling (talk) 07:16, 26 February 2024 (UTC)