Review article
FOLK MEDICINE, HYGIENE AND CHILDBIRTH IN THE LOVINAC REGION
Ana Krznarić
Abstract
The data presented in this paper was collected during field work carried out during March and May of 2010 in the area of the municipality of Lovinac. The research was conducted within the course of Practical Field Research in diploma studies of ethnology and cultural anthropology, of the Faculty of Philosophy, at the University of Zagreb and the project of the Identity and Ethno-cultural Formation of the Bunjevci, under the mentorship of Milan Černelić Ph.D. The data was collected by the method of unstructured interviews, and the questionnaires which were used in interviewing the narrators consisted of four themes in total: the attitude of people towards health and illness, medicinal herbs and their preparations, diseases and their treatment, hygienic conditions and childbirth. The research topics are an important part of human life and all the interviewees were equally familiar with them. Most of the data consisted of memories, stories and personal experiences from the questioned interviewees. The collected data related to the first half of the 20th century, but during the research it was confirmed that some of the medicinal preparations still remain in use today. The article's aim is to consolidate the practice of folk medicine, hygiene conditions and childbirth which comes close to at least a small part of everyday life in the past, as well as their outlines as such in the everyday lives of the inhabitants of the Lovinac region. Being that the Velebit region, to which the municipality of Lovinac belongs, is rich in herbs and water, the knowledge of their properties could be used to promote the development of rural tourism, however this is a separate theme, which in this study, I have not specifically dealt with.
Keywords
folk medicine; treatment; herbs; hygiene; childbirth
Hrčak ID:
70374
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2010.
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