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.
Abstract
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.
- HRAF PubDate
- 1997
- Region
- Europe
- Sub Region
- Southeastern Europe
- Document Type
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- Analyst
- John Beierle ; 1996
- Field Date
- no date
- Coverage Date
- not specified
- Coverage Place
- Serbia
- Notes
- Barbara Kerewsky-Halpern
- LCCN
- 88016896
- LCSH
- Serbs