Feet Worship and the Origins of Reflexology

The oldest documented depiction of the practice of reflexology is a pictograph dated to 2500 to 2300 BCE, found in the tomb of a popular Egyptian physician known as Ankmahor.  Records show that during his lifetime, Ankmahor enjoyed an unusually high societal status, second only to the Pharaoh.  The scene depicts two dark-skinned men working on the feet of two men with lighter skin.  Above the scene are hieroglyphs reading: ‘Do not let it be painful’ to which one attendant replies, ‘I do as you please.’  Due to the physical positioning of the men, the color scheme, and the inscription, Egyptian scholars are able to interpret the pictogram as illustrating the act of using the foot to cure the patients of illness: essentially, "reflexology."  It is hypothesized that although reflexology does not appear to have been in continual practice since ancient Egyptian times, the knowledge of curing ailments through stimulation of the feet has been used by many cultures around the world including the Aborigine of Australia, modern Aztec of Mexico, Native Americans, and several cultures of the Middle East.  Read more . . .