Amputations and Prostheses in Primitive Cultures

The study of man's medical history is difficult, since it is accomplished by correlating rare written records, archaeological findings, and ethnological information. T o accurately deduce diagnoses and treatment from art is also difficult. The work of art being examined may be an abstraction or stylization. We can make accurate deductions only from those art works that clearly demonstrate that the artist intended to portray the physical condition of the patient accurately. I t is far too easy to read things into a work of art that the artist may not have intended to portray. It is easy to be misled by attributing modern thinking to the "ancients." Most primitive treatment was based on magical concepts and not on empirical therapeutics. For this reason, clues to the thinking and customs of the ancients can often be gleaned from the facts gathered about more modern "primitive" civilizations. Pottery can now be dated accurately by thermoluminescence and magnetic field studies. None of the pieces of pottery illustrated had been" dated this way, since these studies are destructive. Approximate dates can be obtained by radiocarbon and art-style methods, which is how the illustrated pots were dated. T h e names of the cultures used are those which are given by archaeologists for identification purposes and ease of communication. In this paper, rough estimates will be given to indicate the general time span when each art style was current. Roughly speaking, before 1500 C.E. will be referred to as "ancient." As there is controversy among authorities in archaeology, only one interpretation is given.b