“WASHING UNDER THE KNEES, WASHING AROUND THE HEART” (WORKING WITH BIOLOGICALLY ACTIVE ZONES IN RUSSIAN FOLK MEDICINE AND TRADITIONAL MEDICINE OF SOUTH EAST ASIA)

Abstract

The article discusses practices of acting upon the body for therapeutic purposes, comparing the points on the body that healers work on to treat diseases with the active points in eastern reflexology which form the basis of Chinese acupuncture. The author suggests that healing rituals in Russian folk medicine not only used healing spells and herbs but also knew biologically active zones. It is considered possible that Russian healers and eastern practitioners worked on the same parts of the body to treat the same diseases. However, in the Russian tradition, the area acted upon was much larger in size, while eastern acupuncture worked on multiple points located in close proximity to each other to treat certain diseases. By analyzing the peculiarities of the Russian tradition, the author emphasizes that practices of working on specific parts of the human body and knowledge about the “points” were transferred from one generation to another. This is “explicit knowledge” which comprises an important part of the “secret” knowledge of Russian ritual specialists.