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Introduction
Right from the beginning of man, humans have known that touch is beneficial and that it helps to rub a sore limb, either with or without the use of certain plants or herbs. As massage is so instinctive, it is difficult to pin down its exact history.
Various civilisations all over the world have evolved these basic techniques, in slightly different ways. Ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans received massage for health and pleasure, whereas in China, Japan and India, massage became much more integrated into their whole system of medicine.
Origins of the Name Even the origin of the word massage is uncertain, though it is believed
to have come from one of the following: |
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Different Civilisations
Some think that the first documented descriptions of massage were discovered in China, in the ‘Nei Ching’ (the yellow emperor’s book of medicine written about 2900 BC). The emphasis was on balancing energy in the body. Acupressure, developed in China, is based on energy points and was used in conjunction with other traditional systems like ‘Anmo (pressing and rubbing) and ‘Tuina’ (pushing and pulling).
In India, they developed Ayurvedic medicine. One book, called the ‘Ayur Veda’ (meaning ‘the arts of life’) was written around 1700BC, describes some simple massage and herbal treatments for various conditions.
Japanese monks began to travel to China to study Buddhism in about 1000BC. At the time, their medical treatments consisted of massage-type methods, but they begin to adapt this, using the Chinese techniques they picked up, eventually reaching the style called ‘Shiatsu’ (‘shi’ being Japanese for finger and ‘atsu’ meaning pressure).
The ancient Greeks used massage in their daily life. In ‘The Odyssey’ (about 1000BC), Homer described how weary war heroes were rested and replenished by massage. The top schools were those of gymnastics, and there were rooms dedicated to massage as well as training rooms to help athletes keep their bodies in the best condition for competitions. Physicians, such as Hippocrates ‘the father of medicine’ (460 to 377BC) wrote that “anyone wishing to study medicine must also master the art of massage”.
Romans were also very keen on massage and it played a big part in their public baths. They learnt many of their techniques from the Greeks. Galen (130AD to 201 AD) was one of the many medical practitioners who flocked from Greece to Rome. He promoted the use of massage in the preparation of gladiators for combat and in the treatment of injuries. He also wrote ‘Massage eliminates the waste products of nutrition and the poisons of fatigue’. With the decline of the Roman empire, massage become a substitute for exercise and a way of coping with the effects of excessive drinking and eating.
The Arabs carried on the tradition of massage in public baths, evolving into the present day ‘hammams’.
One of the greatest Persian medics, called Avicenna (980AD to 1037AD) took special note of analgesics and their proper use as well as other methods of relieving pain, including massage.
Classical medical knowledge re-entered Europe through translations of books, particularly from Galen, in around 1450-1600AD. The French doctor Amroise Pare (1517-1590 AD), one of the founders of modern surgery, used massage, particularly friction, in the treatment of stiff and injured joints.
Henrik Ling (1776-1839AD) from Sweden has been called by some to be the father or modern Western massage. Ling formalised the series of gymnastic movements and massage techniques now known as ‘Swedish Massage’.
Ling’s massage system spread quickly throughout Europe. In 1894/5 the ‘Society of trained masseuses’ was formed in Britain to increase the standard of training and in 1899 Sir William Bennet inaugurated a massage department at St George’s Hospital in London. Indeed, after the First World War, massage was used to combat nervous disorders from chemical warfare.
The Society of Trained Masseuses evolved in the nursing environment to become the ‘Chartered Society of Physiotherapy’ in 1943 (with state registration in 1966).
During the 1960’s there was a realisation of how man made things were seem to be destroying our environment and a resurgence of interest in natural ways of treating the body, thus bringing massage full circle back to its holistic origins, rather than being purely physiological. There has been much interest in how massage can combat stress (the most common cause of disease in our modern world) and help with balancing our sedentary working lives.