The article observes the mythological-ritual complex including mythological ideas of diseases and medical ceremonies, and a layer of the phenomena of a Christian origin in Vepsian traditional medicine which anywise can help to answer a question what is the degree of penetration of Orthodoxy in national system of Vepsian healing. In the traditional medicine of the Veps there are quite diverse views on the etiology of diseases, among them there are rational reasons (from cold, heavy physical labor, poor nutrition, etc.) and irrational ones (from natural objects or personifying their spirits, from animals, loss of a person's own substance – the soul-shadow iče, etc.). There are also such diseases, the occurrence of which can be treated in two ways. A significant place in the treatment of diseases of rational and irrational origin was held by magic aimed to symbolically expulse the disease from the patient's body or to destruct it. Practicing of magical rituals was accompanied by utterance of spells. The author comes to the conclusion that with the adoption of Orthodoxy, the diseases explained by the sins of people, the rituals of healing by Christian symbols and church attributes, and spells by the names of saints and words of church origin added to the world of diseases in the beliefs of the Vepsians. Two directions in Vepsian traditional medicine – magic based on mythological beliefs and Orthodox-church healing practice – occasionally intersected, but more often existed autonomously. Magic could be applied to all diseases of rational and irrational origin, as well as to diseases sent by God for the sins of people. Church rituals were usually used to heal severe, congenital or incurable diseases, obtained naturally and “from God”.
Keywords: Vepsians, traditional medicine, magic, rituals, plots, Christianity.
DOI: 10.22250/2072-8662.2018.3.53-63
About the author
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Irina Yu. Vinokurova – DSc (History), Head of the Department of Ethnology at the Institute of Language, Literature and History of the Karelian Research Centre, Russian Academy of Science; 11 Pushkinskaya str., Petrozavodsk, Republic of Karelia, Russia, 185035; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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