Faith, hope, authority: Healing practices in Eastern Podolia region / Wiara, nadzieja i autorytet. Praktyki uzdrowicielskie na Podolu Wschodnim
Journal Title: Etnografia. Praktyki. Teorie. Doświadczenia / Ethnography. Practices, Theories, Experiences - Year 2016, Vol 2, Issue 2
Abstract
The article describes the practices of people using complementary medicine and alternative methods of healing in a Ukrainian village of Murafa and the city of Vinnytsa, both situated in historical Eastern Podolia. I analyse the figure of healer and also attempt to scrutinise local complementary medicine market. In my analisys I use the concept of bricolage and combining practices based on discourses of science, folk, traditions, and spirituality. I also examine the ways in which healers use practices usually related to institutions such as the church or state in order to make sense of their work. The example of state and its institutions serves as an illustration of an object deconstructed in common consciousness, but still generating subliminal attachement to its manifestations; similary I try to look at the question of complementary medicine and healers acting in this field. I conclude my reflections analysing the embodied experience of change that seems to be essential in a successful process of healing.
Authors and Affiliations
Justyna Szymańska
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP687924
- DOI https://doi.org/10.4467/254395379EPT.16.002.6481
- Views 113
- Downloads 0
Questionnaires and the right to ask questions / Kwestionariusze etnograficzne i prawo zadawania pytań
The main topic of this paper concerns the process of shaping textual research tools, such as surveys and questionnaires. Their use in fieldwork affects the nature and type of collected data. This paper analyses this prob...
„Je chipsy i zapycha się chrupkami". Nastolatki w opiniach dzieci / “She eats chips and clogs with crisps”. Teenagers in the eyes of children
The article presents the results of a study Health in the opinion of children . The main goal of the project was to reveal the meanings that children attribute to health, or the lack of it . During the interviews about h...
Seven ideals / Siedem ideałów
This paper outlines seven methodological ideals. The first ideal pertains to a conviction that research method determines an academic discipline, defines its relationship to the reality and its concept of truth. The seco...
Sami swoi? Refleksje metodologiczne o antropologii u siebie / Among ourselves? Some methodological reflections about anthropology at home
The dichotomy between home and abroad, recently very popular in anthropology, but especially significant in the anthropology of Europe, assumes, in my opinion, an increase of Otherness in line with a geographic-political...
Ethnographer in guests / Etnograf w gościach
Review: Adam Pisarek (2016). Gościnność polska. O kulturowych konkretyzacjach idei. Katowice: grupa kulturalna.pl, ss. 264