Original scientific paper
Practitioners of Folk Medicine
Aida Brenko
; Ethnographic Museum in Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
This paper is part of a wider ten-year-long research of folk medicine in Croatia. During the research, data concerning different practices,
beliefs and attitudes towards health and illness have been studied.
Special attention was drawn to practitioners of folk medicine and the
role they have in their community. Field research material was compared to data published in Zbornici za narodni život i običaje južnih Slavena, relevant ethnological and anthropological literature,
and medical resources; therefore the paper embraces the period from
the end of the 19th century until today. The paper tries to find out diverse functions of the practitioners of folk medicine in the past and
their changes through times. Healers are categorized according to the
methods and techniques they use. Although some methods are chiefly
rational (bone setting, blood-letting, healing with herbs), while others
are irational (healing on religious and magical basis), in practice all
these elements are inter-weaved. According to the fact that today the
context of folk medicine has essentially changed, the authoress made
researches into those traditions that have been known in Croatia until
the present day, in both urban and rural regions. These traditions did
not disappear in spite of century-long opression by the elite culture.
Practitioners of folk medicine represent the link through which these
traditions are transferred up to now. The paper explains how today's
usage of folk medicine has different economical, ideological and social
circumstances not only for individuals, but also for the society in general. This paper pinpoints three essential elements. Firstly, it covers the evolution of the subject and methodology in the ethnological research, especially in Croatia. The author's interest is not a traditional (folk) way of life anymore, but everyday life of the
contemporary society including the urban way and socio-anthropological approach itself. Secondly, the paper has been one
of the first complete data analyses on the practitioners of folk medicine in Croatia. Finally, analysing the phenomenon of folk
medicine and its practitioners, the author confirmed alternative treatments and their efficiency the modern man.
Keywords
folk medicine; practitioners of folk medicine; official medicine; unofficial medicine; religion; magic; Croatia
Hrčak ID:
34555
URI
Publication date:
23.3.2009.
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