Illness and Disability in the Abkhaz Society

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2026-1/245-263

Authors

Keywords:

medical anthropology, folk medicine, Caucasus, Abkhaz, disabilities

Abstract

Despite its relative immaturity, medical anthropology has achieved notable success in studying local medical practices but has paid comparatively little attention to the situation of people with disabilities in non-European societies and cultures. Based on both published sources and her own field data collected through long-term participant observation, the author attempts to characterize the concepts and practices regarding disability that have developed in Abkhazia. In particular, she concludes that the traditional Abkhaz model of disability does not look too exotic and is not too different from the European medical model. But its general emphasis is still shifted because fewer manifestations of disabilities are interpreted as therapeutic (medical) problems, even when magical actions are considered a specific form of treatment and healing. At the same time, many ailments are fatalistically accepted. Being a person with disabilities in Abkhaz society is a problem for a family or clan, and not only and not so much for a single individual, as everywhere in European cultures. The lives of the most disadvantaged people here take place almost exclusively at the family level, and thus they are excluded from society. It is not typical for Abkhazia to recognize some special status for people with “deviations”.

Author Biography

  • Rita Kuznetsova, Kuban State University; Institute of Oriental Studies, the Russian Academy of Sciences

    Kuznetsova, Rita S. — Lecturer, Kuban State University (Russia, Krasnodar); Researcher, Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Russia, Moscow). E-mail: ritakuznetsova2015@yahoo.com ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2233-2378

    For citation: Kuznetsova, R. S. 2026. Illness and Disability in the Abkhaz Society.  Herald of Anthropology (Vestnik Antropologii) 1: 245–262.

    Funding: The study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, grant №. 23-18-00214 «Digital Technologies and Quality of Life of People with Disabilities: Comparative Experience of the Post-Soviet Countries and the State of Israel».

    References

    Anchabadze, Yu. D., and Yu. G. Argun (eds.). 2007. Abkhazy [The Abkhaz]. Moscow: Nauka. 547 p.

    Arshba, S. G. 2005. Narodnaia meditsina abkhazov (konets 19–20 vv.) [Folk Medicine of the Abkhaz (late 19th–20th centuries)]. Ph.D. dissertation abstract, Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology RAS. 31 p.

    Arshba, S. G. 2007. Narodnaia meditsina abkhazov [Folk Medicine of the Abkhaz]. Мoscow: Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology RAS. 217 p.

    Charlton, J. 1998. Nothing about Us without Us: Disability Oppression and Empowerment. Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press. 197 p.

    Chesnov, Ya. V. 1987. K etnograficheskomu izucheniiu zhiznedeiatel’nosti cheloveka (na primere traditsionnoi abkhazskoi kultury) [Towards an Ethnographic Study of Human Life (Using the Traditional Abkhaz Culture as an Example)]. Sovetskaia etnografiia 3: 23–34.

    Chursin, G. F. 1957. Materialy po etnografii Abkhazii [Materials on the Ethnography of Abkhazia]. Sukhumi: Abkhazskoe gosudarstvennoie izdatel’stvo. 265 p.

    Dbar, S. A. 2000. Abkhazskaia narodnaia meditsina [Abkhaz Folk Medicine]. In Abkhazovedenie. Istoriia. Arkheologiia. Etnologiia [Abkhaz Studies. History. Archaeology. Ethnology], ed. by G. K. Shamba. Vol. 1. Sukhum: Alashara. 153–162.

    Dbar, S. A. 2000a. Obychai i obriady detskogo tsikla u abkhazov (vtoraia polovina 19 – nachalo 20 vv.) [Customs and Rituals of the Children's Cycle Among the Abkhaz (second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries)]. Sukhum: Alashara. 133 p.

    Devlieger, P. 1999. Developing Local Concepts of Disability: Cultural Theory and Research Prospects. In Disability in Different Cultures: Reflections on Local Concepts, ed. by B. Holzer, A. Vreede, and G. Weigt. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag. 297–302.

    Dzhanashia, N. S. 1915. Religioznyie verovaniia abkhaztsev [Religious Beliefs of the Abkhaz]. Khristianskii Vostok 4(1): 72–112.

    Dzhanashia, N. S. 1917. Abkhazskii kul’t i byt [Abkhazian Cult and Life]. Petrograd: Academia of Sciences Press. 157–208 p.

    Dzhanashia, N. S. 1960. Stat’i po etnografii Abkhazii [Articles on the Ethnography of Abkhazia]. Sukhumi: Abgosizdat. 130 p.

    Douglas, M. 1966. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. 193 p.

    Douglas, M. 2000. Chistota i opasnost’: analiz predstavlenii ob oskvernenii i tabu [Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo]. Moscow: KANON-press-Ts: Kuchkovo pole. 285 p.

    Ember, C., and M. Ember (eds.). 2004. Encyclopedia of Medical Anthropology. Health and Illness in the World’s Cultures in 2 vols. New York, Boston, Dordrecht, London, Moscow: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. 542 p.; 545–1071 p.

    Foster, G., and B. Anderson. 1978. Medical Anthropology. New York: Wiley. 354 p.

    Freed, R., and S. Freed. 1979. Shanti Nagar: The Effects of Urbanization in a Village in North India 3. Sickness and Health. New York: The American Museum of Natural History (Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History. Vol. 55). 296 p.

    Goffman, E. 1986. Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. N.Y.: Touchstone Book. [first edition, 1963]. 147 p.

    Inal-ipa, Sh. D. 1960. Abkhazy (istoriko-etnograficheskiy ocherk) [The Abkhaz (Historical and Ethnographic Essays)]. Sukhumi: Abgosizdat. 694 p.

    Kharitonova, V. I. (ed.). 2015. Meditsinskaia antropologiia, problemy, metody, issledovatel’skoe pole [Medical Anthropology, Problems, Methods, Research Field]. Moscow: Publicity. 333 p.

    Kohrman, M. 2000. Grooming Que Zi: Marriage Exclusion and Identity Formation Among Disabled Men in Contemporary China. American Ethnologist 26: 890–909. https://doi.org/10.1525/ae.1999.26.4.890

    Kurlenkova, A. S., and E. E. Nosenko-Shtein (eds.). 2018. Obratnaia storona Luny, ili chto my ne znaem ob invalidnosti: teoriia, reprezentatsii, praktiki [The Dark Side of the Moon, or What We Don’t Know About Disability: Theory, Representations, Practices]. Moscow: Izdatel’stvo MBA. 419 p.

    Kuznetsova, R. Sh. 2024. Obuchenie detei s ogranichennymi vozmozhnostiami zdorov’ia v sovremennoi Abkhazii: problemy i nekotorye sposoby ikh resheniia (vpechatleniia ot letnikh polevykh issledovaniy) [Disabled Child Educating in Contemporary Abkhazia: Problems and Some Ways of their Solution (Impressions After Summer Fieldwork Season)]. In Pomogaiushchie tekhnologii v zhizni liudei s ogranichennymi vozmozhnostiami zdorovia: proshloe i nastoiashchee [Assistive Technologies in the Lives of People with Disabilities: Past and Present]. Collection of articles, ed. by E. E. Nosenko-Shtein, and A. V. Frolova. Moscow: Neolit. 197–211.

    Marshall, M. 1996. Problematizing Impairment: Cultural Competence in the Carolines. Ethnology 35(4): 249–269. https://doi.org/10.2307/3773869

    Nosenko-Shtein, E. E. 2022. Rasshiriaia granitsy issledovanii: izuchenie invalidnosti v gumanitarnykh i sotsialnykh distsiplinakh [Expanding the Frontiers of Research: Disability Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences]. Vestnik Nizhegorodskogo universiteta imeni N. I. Lobachevskogo. Series Social Sciences 2(66): 48–52.

    Reid-Cunningham, A. R. 2009. Anthropological Theories of Disability. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment 19: 99–111. https://doi.org/10.1080/10911350802631644

    Romanov, P. V., and E. R. Yarskaia-Smirnova. 2006. Politika invalidnosti: Sotsialnoe grazhdanstvo invalidov v sovremennoi Rossii [Disability Politics: Social Citizenship of Disabled People in the Contemporary Russia]. Saratov: Nauchnaia kniga. 260 p.

    Scheer, J., and N. Groce. 1988. Impairment as a Human Constant: Crosscultural and Historical Perspectives on Variation. Journal of Social Issues 44: 23–37. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1988.tb02046.x

    Sentumbwe, N. 1995. Sighted Lovers and Blind Husbands: Experiences of Blind Women in Uganda. In Disability and Culture, ed. by B. Ingstad and S. Whyte. Berkeley: University of California Press. 159–173.

    Turner, V. 1983. Simvol i ritual [Symbol and Ritual]. Moscow: Nauka. 277 p.

Downloads

Published

13.03.2026

Issue

No. 1 (2026): Herald of Anthropology (Vestnik antropologii)

Section

Folk Medicine and Disability