The history of massage
Massage was born at the early stages of the folk medicine development. In ancient times people used rubbing, petrissage, tapotement of a body.
The history of the word "massage" is rather interesting. According to some authors it came from the Arabian word "mass" or "masch" that means "to rub tenderly, to push". Other authors consider that this word came from the Greek word "masso" that meant "to rub, to push with hands". And according to the third theory this word comes from Latin "massa" that meant "sticking to hands". Massage from ancient times made the part of medical art. Hindus and Chinese people were the first who described the first techniques of massage.
There were texts that described the session of massage that were written in 3000 BC in Chinese ancient book. They described different methods of massage and the therapeutic treatment of certain methods of massage. Usually the Chinese massage was the tender petrissage of the whole body from hands to feet.
The steam baths with massage were combined in ancient India. Masseurs started their work when the body of a person was heated and wet enough. All parts of the body were massaged from one side at first and then from the other.
Priests were doing massage in ancient China and India. There were special schools in these countries in which people were taught to do massage. In its primitive form massage was used in America, Africa. There is also data according to which this art was also known to many tribes that lived in the islands of the Pacific Ocean.