MINDBODYGREEN.COM — Long before beauty counters, makeovers, and fluorescent lights, magis concocted magical, potent recipes from a variety of local sources. Plains Indians used tipi ash, Dutch New Yorkers used goat milk, aboriginal Australians used kangaroo placenta. There were no double-blinded, placebo-controlled studies enrolling thousands of university patients but rather spoken tradition, passed down, grandmother to grandmother over hundreds of years. With the advent of penicillin and “modern science,” we’ve largely abandoned indigenous tradition, opting instead for stainless-steel countertops, Erlenmeyer flasks, and the endorsement of the FDA.
