PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH MAINTENANCE IN THE TRADITIONAL KOMI CULTURE
Keywords:
traditional culture, the Izhma Komi, health maintenance, religious and magical knowledge, lifestyle, diet, cold water treatment, etiquette norms, personal and public hygieneAbstract
In the article, on the basis of fieldwork and previously published materials, the author looks into the features of health maintenance, prevention, hygiene and treatment of the ethnic group Izhma Komi living in the Northeast of the European part of Russia. Health maintenance in the traditional environment, first of all, consists in living in accordance with natural rhythms. The author analyzes folklore materials (proverbs and sayings), data on ritual practices as well as features of people’s everyday life. She also concentrates on norms of etiquette, diet and restrictions on consumption of alcohol, norms of personal and public hygiene, overall worldview of the Izhma Komi group.
References
- Godovyh, T.V., Dohnova, L.I. et al. (2005) Rastenija v jetnomedicine Chukotki [Plants in Ethnomedicine of Chukotka], Magadan.
- Ivanickij, N.A. (1890) Materialy po jetnografii Vologodskoj gubernii [Materials on the ethnography of the Vologda province], Izvestija Imperatorskogo obshhestva ljubitelej estestvoznanija, antropologii i jetnografii pri Moskovskom universitete [Proceedings of the Imperial Society of Naturalists, Anthropology and Ethnography at the Moscow University], Т.LXIX.
- Il’ina, I.V. (1997) Narodnaja medicina komi [The traditional medicine of Komi people], Syktyvkar.
- Il’ina, I.V. (2008) Tradicionnaja medicinskaja kul’tura narodov Evropejskogo Severo-Vostoka (konec XIX – XX vv.) [The traditional medical culture of the European North-East of the peoples (the end of XIX — XX centuries], Syktyvkar.
- Misharina, G.A. (2008) Psihoterapevticheskie funkcii prichitanij (na materialah komi tradicii) [The psychotherapeutic functions of lamentations (on the materials of the Komi tradition)] Narodnaja medicina v sisteme kul’turnoj adaptacii naselenija Evropejskogo Severa: itogi i perspektivy mezhdisciplinarnyh issledovanij [Traditional medicine in the system of cultural adaptation of the North European population: results and prospects of the interdisciplinary research], Volodin V.V., Il’ina I.V., Savel’eva G. S. (eds.), Syktyvkar.
- Mifologija komi. Jenciklopedija ural’skih mifologij [Mythology of the Komi. Encyclopedia of the mythology of Ural region] (1999), Moscow.Plesovskij, F.V. (1973) Komi poslovicy i pogovorki [Proverbs of the Komi people], Syktyvkar.
The article is available in full version in Russian