essay

Healing with mother metaphors: Serbian conjurers' word magic

women as healers : cross-cultural perspectivesNew 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.
Subjects
Sociolinguistics
Magical and mental therapy
Shamans and psychotherapists
culture
Serbs
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