First Aid

In thinking of a topic for a transitory post between folk knowledge and oral knowledge, I couldn't find something I liked to write about. So I went (instantly hears Harry and Ron say "to the library" in my head) to the instructor blog where there was a list of ideas for folk knowledge. I ended up deciding that first aid was a good topic. Let me explain why.

When you were a little kid, you probably went to your mom whenever you got hurt. If you just got a little cut, your mom probably put on some neosporin and a band-aid; if you got a bad scrape, she probably put on hydrogen peroxide and a band-aid. Basically, if you got hurt, your mom would put something on followed by a band-aid.

As we get older, we begin to learn to treat ourselves. Seeing someone else treat me when I got hurt was a big part of learning how, but it wasn't enough. I knew that scrapes called for hydrogen peroxide and cuts called for neosporin, but I didn't know why simply from watching. I also never saw my mom call the poison control center, but I knew that I needed to if I saw someone get bit by a poisonous snake. For that matter, even, I hadn't ever seen anyone get bit by a poisonous snake, so I had no actual folk knowledge derived from experience of how to tell if a snake was poisonous or not. First aid was therefore a form of folk knowledge and also a form of oral knowledge.

Let's go with the example of a badly scraped knee to illustrate this point. I knew from experience that if I scraped my knee, I needed hydrogen peroxide, or what I probably called "bubbly stuff" or "medicine soap" or something of the sort. What I didn't know was why I needed hydrogen peroxide or what it did scientifically. My mom would tell me that it cleaned the scrape, so that any germs would be killed and not get into my body. Then, as I got older and took chemistry and biology classes, I learned more of the way that this actually worked. The process of first aid for a bad scrape therefore contains both folk knowledge, in knowing that "bubbly stuff" needed to be applied to the wound and about how much of it was needed, and oral knowledge, in knowing that "bubbly stuff" is called "hydrogen peroxide" or "H2O2" or is a base or looks like this for a poor two-dimension representation:

H-O-O-H

We also see the dual nature of first aid knowledge in other examples, such as treating poison ivy (put on a cream; don't scratch or it will get worse), checking for a fever (put the thermometer in your mouth; a number above 99 (or, in my case, 98; I run a little low-grade most of the time) means you have a fever, and treating a fever (take little red pills in the hard-to-open container; don't take more than two every four hours).


I think that the fact that first aid skills take two kinds of knowledge- folk and oral- is a testament to how important it is. First aid skills must be passed down from generation to generation because otherwise more people will die. First aid, like building a fire or making a shelter, is a skill that people (more so in the past than now) would die if they did not know. It was for this reason that nearly all cultures of the past had some kind of healer (frequently called a medicine man, shaman, herbalist, witch doctor, or apothecary) with each social group (tribe, etc.) who was revered by all, next in importance only to the leader (chief, etc.) himself, and who trained an apprentice or two with the utmost care. Because the knowledge of first aid was so critical to a civilization or even a specific group of people (even a family) that it was doubly important to pass on and consequently took the forms of both learning by observing and then doing and learning by being told.