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« 2024. # 5 (179)

The Ethnology Notebooks. 2024. № 5 (179), 1150—1156

UDK [61:615.89](477.86-13-11)”19/20″

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/

HEALTH STATE OF THE POPULATION, TREATMENT AND FOLK MEDICINE ON POKUTTIA AT THE END OF THE 19TH — FIRST HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY

FAINYK Tetiana

  • ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8446-4002
  • Doctor of Philosophy, senior researcher fellow
  • of the department of Modern Ethnology
  • of the Institute of Ethnology
  • The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine,
  • 15, Svobody Avenue, 79000, Lviv, Ukraine,
  • Contacts: e-mail: t.faynyk@gmail.com

Abstract. Introduction: Pokuttia is a picturesque corner of the Carpathian region, where many folk traditions have been preserved, in particular in folk medicine. Hard daily work, isolation due to weak communication, inaccessibility and high cost of qualified medical care were the reasons for the existence of folk methods of treatment and the existence of witchcraft. Belief in the magical power of words existed so deeply among the people that they wanted to use them to influence the removal of natural disasters and all kinds of diseases.

 The problem of the article involves a review of the historical environment in which health is the norm of human existence, while illness violates this norm, accordingly, a person throughout his existence fights with illness, passing on certain knowledge about medicines and methods of treatment. This is how folk medicine was born, which absorbed everything from the time when the world was perceived as a whole, with its positive and negative. Belief in the healing power of plants, in a good word, certain superstitions, which are reflected in many rites, orders, songs, certain rituals, own practices and life experience, are a whole system of folk healing wisdom.

The relevance lies in the researched history of medicine, because it contains rich material from the history of the people and its worldview.

The purpose of writing the article is an attempt to highlight the state of medical practice and human health in Pokutta and the place of folk medicine in it.

The object of research is folk medicine in a historical aspect, and the subject is the attitude of the population to diseases and their treatment. For the first time, an attempt was made to highlight and explain the impact of social, cultural, communicative and other factors on the state of health of the population of Pokuttia during the research period.

The methodological basis of the research is the complex application of a number of general scientific methods, the main of which are historical and typological analyses.

Keywords: folk medicine, history of medicine, medical practices, ethnography, folk traditions, culture, sanitation and hygiene.

Received 3.10.2024

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