essay
Healing with mother metaphors: Serbian conjurers' word magic
Women as healers : cross-cultural perspectives • New Brunswick, New Jersey • Published In 1989 • Pages: 115-133
By: Halpern, Barbara.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This article presents a study of Serbian ethnomedicine, including linguistic and semantic interpretations of oral charms and the phenomenology of healing rites. After spending over three decades among Serbian villagers, the author became accepted as a BABA (old woman or fictive 'granny'), and therefore a rightful recipient of (and participant in) women's collective wisdom transmitted orally across generation and through female lines. In the text Halpern describes her role in learning some of the basic procedures utilized by the BAJALICA --a female medical practitioner -- in curing. Several cases are discussed involving colic, jaundice, impotence, and simple aches and pains (e.g., rheumatism, arthritis, bursitis, sciatica, etc.), and the methods and techniques used by the BAJALICA in attempting their cure.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Sociolinguistics
- Magical and mental therapy
- Shamans and psychotherapists
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Serbs
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 1997
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Europe
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Southeastern Europe
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- John Beierle ; 1996
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- no date
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- not specified
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Serbia
- NotesAdditional notes
- Barbara Kerewsky-Halpern
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 88016896
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Serbs