Talk:Granny women

Text moved to talk. Also suggesting a move/new article

 * Grrranny: Archetypal grandmother characterized by strength, wisdom, and courage.  An urban legend that holds that a very powerful wise woman, who has earned the keys of many doors, will die in absolute commitment to the human race, and will gain extreme power to protect her chosen charges at the moment of her death.  She has the power to defend women and children from senseless abuse, and from aggressive domination.  She has the power to turn men's minds toward responsibility, love, and creative endeavor.

I removed this text from the article in chief, pending finding a source for this.

Also - what would the community say to either a general article about the wise woman? It seems to me that the sort of traditional healer / midwife / white witch that's discussed in the article in chief would be better off as a section in an article with a worldwide perspective, given that this is a worldwide phenomenon. We don't have an article on "wise woman" generally, but we have articles about a number of people who qualify, including Biddy Early. - Smerdis of Tlön (talk) 14:57, 18 December 2008 (UTC)


 * It seems to me that this article could best be merged or folded into another. This article could be de-regionalized quite easily.  Note also that, try as you might, you can only come up with references on granny-women from one source.  It originally appeared as an article in some kind of regional paper, and then the idea was further developed by the same woman in her academic career.  There is no other source for the granny-woman from any other person, and the author of the articles doesn't go out of her way to mention even a single source!  Almost self-referential, which is why I advocated a delete.Sukiari (talk) 02:44, 30 December 2008 (UTC)


 * I know I'm chiming in on this six months on, but the "granny" concept is not just the brain-child of some recent woman who wrote about it as an academic exercise. Being from the Appalachians, I've been familiar with the term "granny woman" all my life.  It was a significant role, although it was a practical role and not metaphysical or "white witchy" as the above text would imply.  Perhaps the concept is not limited to the Appalachians, but because the term is an Appalachian term, it seems valid to leave it as a stand-alone article.  I added a quotation and reference from 1921, to show that there are other references besides recent ones.  Eastcote (talk) 00:19, 31 May 2009 (UTC)


 * I'm always late to the ballgame. But I grew up in Appalachia, too. I never heard the term "Granny woman" until somewhere around 2000 - I was 31 years old. If such people exist, they exist by another name where I grew up. --Mari Adkins 22:11, 19 December 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by MariAdkins (talk • contribs)
 * It is a rare term, as I stated earlier it is a real term, BUT this article, to actually have a Start class is a total, JOKE. The places in Appalachia where this term is used do not allow in any application of physics, any elderly woman to hoof a hollow, GET MORPHINE......IN A REMOTE COMPANY STORE IN APPALACHIA, A CONTROLLED NARCOTIC...IN A SMALL STORE......DURING A BIRTH, AFTER SCALING A SHEER WALL, AND THEN BACK AGAIN to administer the drug, MORPHINE topically, which can KILL YOU. With a steady expertise......Why not?, well thats because, IT AINT SO, thats whyCoal town guy (talk) 03:49, 20 December 2012 (UTC)

Native American influence
I deleted the following statement from the article: "Much of the original healing knowledge was learned from the Cherokee and Creek Indians of the South, and incorporated into the medicine of Granny women."

This assertion needs to be supported. The "original healing knowledge" was more likely brought with the settlers to the frontiers. These people weren't just naive babes thrown into the wilderness. They brought with them centuries of lore, superstition and wisdom from their countries of origin in Europe. Certainly they had to learn the properties of new world plants, but they brought plenty of familiar plants with them, and they didn't need to learn from the Natives such things as midwifery, setting of broken limbs, or how to remove warts... Eastcote (talk) 04:35, 26 October 2009 (UTC)


 * I am 1/4 Cherokee, my gg mother was a granny woman, and I defy ANYONE to tell me how, you can get MORPHINE in the setting provided. AND SURPRISE, they used the local plants because, THAT S ALL YOU HAVE IN A REMOTE HOLLOWCoal town guy (talk) 03:53, 20 December 2012 (UTC)

WT &*^&*% is this????
My gg mother was a granny woman. She did NOT have access to morphine, ever try to get morphine in Appalachia????? Sure how about building a laser with chewing gum and a razor blade, McGyver did! WHAT store? Isolated regions in Hollows were often MILES from a store in terrain that would cripple a goat, much less an elderly woman. This is at best near utter nonsense and total hearsayCoal town guy (talk) 03:23, 20 December 2012 (UTC)