Traditional medicine versus alternative medicine is a subject of great scrutiny and speculation within the medical field and the general public. Though there are some medical experts who do embrace the use of natural therapies and products, the vast majority of physicians today still ridicule and belittle the use of alternative medicine despite its ever growing popularity, says Dr Kumar Mahabir.

"Though traditional and alternative medicine both share the same objective — to keep the body strong and healthy, it is important to look at the positives and negatives within both branches of medicine before you completely discard it. A combination of the two, I believe, would be beneficial within our healthcare system," he said.

Dr Mahabir is an Assistant Prof at the Centre for Education Programmes at the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT). He obtained his PhD in Anthropology at the University of Florida. As a doctoral student he won a Florida Caribbean Institute Award. For the past 30 years, Mahabir has been involved in research on Indians in Trinidad, Guyana, Suriname, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, St Kitts, St Lucia, St Vincent, Grenada and Belize. Last year he was awarded the Hummingbird Medal Silver for his dedicated service in the field of education. Recently he was the only academic from the Caribbean to win an international scholarship to go to Egypt to participate in a workshop on Visual Methodologies.

In his latest book, Traditional Medicine and Woman Healers in Trinidad, launched recently at the National Academy of the Performing Arts (NAPA), Dr Mahabir explores the many facets of traditional and alternative medicine used in Trinidad. He focuses on both the formal and informal health care systems in Trinidad and Tobago as it pertains to post natal health care.

According to Dr Mahabir the book is an abridged version of his PhD thesis which was submitted to the University of Florida in 1997. The overall field work, he said, took approximately two years but the book itself took nine months to write.

"It is perhaps the first time these traditional practices have ever been documented in such detail. This type of medicine is still widely practised in Trinidad and Tobago however the numbers of traditional healers are decreasing. This is so because of the stigma attached to alternative medicine. It is considered not to be scientific and it does not have the prestige as conventional medicine does so you find that the young ones don't want to be associated with it," he said.

According to Dr Mahabir, traditional medicine is more drug and surgery oriented whereas with alternative medicine, it encompasses any healing practice that does not fall within the realm of conventional/traditional medicine. It is based more on historical and/or cultural traditions, rather than on scientific evidence.

Focusing on common beliefs held in Trinidad concerning the traditional and alternative medical care that pregnant women and newborns should receive, Dr Mahabir expounds on some of the beliefs that are still held in Trinidad which include:

• Pregnant women seeking to prevent a breach birth (baby born feet first) will visit a ritual healer for "rubbing" to realign the baby. This is also done to realign organs that may have also shifted.

• Cupping or glassing is used to draw out pain in the lower back. Cupping involves "placing a teaspoon of pot salt or some grains of rice on a piece of cloth the size of a handkerchief. The salt is bunched and the ends of the cloth are tied together with a thread. The thread is lit with a deya and the lighted ball-shaped lamp is placed on the affected body part. A brass jug or "lota" is used to cover the lighted cloth which pulls, holds and draws the pain. This procedure is done twice daily on the back and under the navel if the problem is diagnosed to be an abnormal disorder."

• Glassing similar to cupping involves "a one inch stick of candle mounted on a coin, set on the affected area. A glass is turned upside down over the lighted wick. Another method is to pour a few drops of puncheon rum on a cloth which is then used to wipe the inside of a thick drinking glass. A match is struck, and flames quickly engulf the inside of the glass. The lighted glass is quickly placed upside down on the