Paracelsus Goes West: Medical European Alchemy and Indigenous Botanical Knowledge in 17th Century Colonial New England.

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Throughout early 17th-century New England, colonial medicine was most often administered by women and other folk practitioners as few professionally trained physicians were available in the region. While Galenism (humoral theory) continued to serve as the foundation for European medical practice, the documentary record reveals that practitioners in Old and New England were also implementing Paracelsian, or alchemical, teachings during the period. Alchemical medicine favored curative remedies over preventative regimens, and practitioners prescribed treatments rooted in folk knowledge of plants and other foods that were more accessible to middling folk than the intricate, humorally informed diets recommended by traditional physicians. Documentary and archaeological evidence from early 17th-century sites in New England highlight the application of alchemical medicine alongside Indigenous knowledge by colonial leaders and medical practitioners. This paper will investigate these sources and discuss the application of alchemy to colonial medical practice carried out by English colonists in the region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow