Every culture, irrespective of its simplicity and complexity, has its own beliefs and practices concerning diseases. Every culture evolves its own system of medicine in order to treat diseases in its own way. This treatment of disease varies from group to group. It may be pointed out that disease and treatment, particularly in the simple societies cannot be properly understood in isolation. Health and treatment are very much connected with the environment, particularly the forest ecology. The health care system and traditional treatment are based on their deep observation and understanding of nature and environment. The present study has been done on the Karbi tribal group of Karbi Anglong, Assam. The district is largely covered by a forest and several other natural resources. Such resources are used by the local people in every perspective of their livelihood. The Karbi people had a strong belief that different malevolent supernatural agencies can create tremendous harm and allied misfortune to the reproductive mother as well as to the new born. The concerned people are very much psychologically dependent on the traditional healers and ethno-gynaecologists for the treatment related to such cases. The concerned healers use several locally available plant and animal resources for such treatment. Meanwhile, particularly in the cases of reproductive mother-child health, a number of floral and faunal resources are also used by them, as a part of their ethnic food. The present study has the prime objective to reveal the relationship between cultural practices, environmental resources and indigenous knowledge of health care system among the Karbi people, particularly in relation to their issues of reproductive mother-child health. The study is based on primary data collected through intensive fieldwork. Several anthropological methods are used in this regard to collect primary data.
