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Essay About Jamu

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Origin of Jamu The usage of jamu has been known since pre-history, where the historical evidence supporting the origin of jamu in Indonesia can be traced through the discovery of stone tools during the periode of Neolithic and Mesolithicum ages in the form of lumping which has been used by our ancestors to process the food and jamu. Initially jamu is only consumed by the royal family that can be seen from the origin of the word jamu derived from Djampi, ?kromo inggil? of Javanese languagee, and Oesodo (Djampi means magical spells, while Oesodo means health). Jampi-jampi means the incantation of shaman while using herbs that combined with prayer and spells. And the word of m?njampi means ?to cure by magic?. This means when shaman makes jamu, …show more content…

According to Selo Soemarjan (1996), from prehistory to modern era there are four stages in the culture development, which are early irrationalism, further irrationalism, early rationalism, and advanced rationalism. Being located at the cross-roads of international trading routes, the Indonesian archipelago has a long history of contact with Chinese and Arab traders, who introduced plants, herbs and spices, and brought with them insights from Indian Ayurvedic traditions, traditional Chinese medicine, Arab healing practices and ancient Greek medicine. Then because the abundant of MAC plants ingredients, including spices and herbs of jamu that attracted Western traders and global adventures to sail and travel to Indonesia. The trade in herbs and spices, which started in the sixteenth century, made the European diet much tastier and suitable to beat the cold climate. It also provided physicians with substances they could use in the treatment of disease. In fact, the Renaissance of European medicines in the seventeenth century was mostly based on the herbs and spices and on the medical insights of traditional healers from India, China and the Indonesian archipelago. Over the periods of exploration and colonisation, physicians became intrigued by the ways in which disease and ailments were

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