Determining Factors for the Ethnomedical Practices Followed by Tribal People: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

In view of the effectiveness of age old persistent ethnomedical practices, the present study is considered to bring out the information on determining factors for the ethnomedical practices followed by tribal people of Vizianagaram district of Andhra Pradesh. Exploratory research design was adopted for the study. Vizianagaram district of Andhra Pradesh was purposively selected. Three villages from each mandal were selected randomly that make a sample of six villages for the study. A sample of 120 tribal respondents with minimum age of 40 years were selected purposively. A total of 120 ethnomedical practices of the tribals were collected in health management three specified disciplines namely human, animal and plant. Among these 120 ethnomedical practices 60 practices were on human health, 40 practices were on animal health and 20 practices were on plant health. Data pertaining to source of information for ethno medical practices revealed that family was ranked I for getting information, while in the context of contributing factors for continuing ethnomedical practices it was found that majority of the tribal respondents had high (70.00 %) mass media exposure, medium religious belief and medium (56.00 %) level of fatalism. Most (42.50%) of the tribal respondents had medium level of extension contact. The determining factors will certainly benefit the scientific community to understand the root causes for the strong belief and continuation of ethnomedicine since ages.