SLFK 215, November 4, 2003
Lots of kids out for Halloween this year
What about last?
Fun holiday can turn into threat
Though why terrorists would go after little kids might be an interesting question
Even when people were not nervous - the various legends of Halloween
Razors and pins or needles in candy
Poison injected into candy
This process is very much like the accusation process with healers/witches
Any baba can be accused of being a witch
This can even apply to normal people, those who do not heal
The setting candles story
Doing the egg ceremony counter-clockwise in class
Process of accusation in rape cases - including blame the victim
Blame the victim in a traditional village setting
An old woman comes to ask you for something - food, alms
You say no
Then your cow stops giving milk or your child gets sick
With klikushestvo - way to remove blame from self
If a woman is childless
If there is something else wrong in the household, in the marriage
Way to get a break - I need a monastery cure
Need to go away to the relics of such and such a saint so that I can be healed
But this is a dangerous game
But why were you affected and not someone else?
What did you do to deserve getting hexed?
Halyna was playing a dangerous game being a healer
Same for the little old lady in the picture with the colicy baby
You need to feel a compulsion to do this to take the risk
Or be desperate enough to need the money/support
At one point, this might well have been a prestigious position, with no drawbacks
As there are hints that there was once shamanism across the Slavic area
So there are hints that there were priestesses who had sacred knowledge
Served to initiate young women and men
May have been sought out for healing and other functions
Only remnant is in fairytales
The Baba Iaga
Tell story of the Doll and show pictures
Red death may have been a sacrifice to her - male sacrificed to priestess and/or goddess
Conditions of the body after one year foretell the crops and the harvest
What we know about red death is the Stolpniki
Stand at their post until they die
May have been general practice of sacrifice of a single adult male per year per village
By a post
At a hut in the forest - the latter is very much like the hut of Baba Iaga
When the old religion is replaced by Christianity, it does not simply disappear
Usual is to demonize what was good before
Inversion
Example in west: Beelzebub < Baal, a former chief deity
Think of this process when it comes to medicine
Something that was part of early medical practice might well be seen not just as passé, but far worse
Very strongly disparaged
Seen as useless
Demand of "exceptional proof" for exceptional (from western standpoint) phenomena
Healing hands example at AFS
It did not work
Does western medicine work all of the time?
You want it to work, to be magical (Topic of the SLFK 213 course)
But why should it be any different from other approaches to the body and the spirit and to wellness?
My dad and herbal medicine
My dad's remedies
Getting my tooth done in a Turkish village
Getting a wart cured in same place
David Hufford's points from AFS
How folk knowledge comes into being
Observation
Transmission by custom and practice
The similarities of these to conventional experimentation
Lyme disease and how it was discovered and by whom
Cranberry juice and urinary tract infections
Testing the healing power of prayer
Reading the article on the Botanicas and Santeria
And wanting the same sort of personal attention and support, not getting it from my MD
My theory about Prozac and Zoloft as compared with the babas in the villages
The appeal of Hildegard von Bingen
Please notice the importance of art in her approach to wellness
And you would question why art anyway?
What is it and why does it give pleasure?
Why do people want art?
Ethnic healing traditions used by non-ethnics
Sweat lodges
Toelken's experiences with the Navajo
Chance for them to look at various practices
Tattooing - art directly on the body
Is it for beauty?
Is it for the pain?
When do people get tattooed? Is something going on in their lives that they might need help with?
What about body builders? Art to/on the body. The body as art
What about anorexics and trying to make the body into something beautiful - or cosmetic surgery for that matter
Does it do something for well-being beyond being aesthetically pleasing?
To what extent are various illnesses somewhat like klikuchestvo?
Munchausen by proxy
This is just one line
Quest for pain, for fear
The entertainment about Gatlinburg
Acupuncture is now accepted practice
Acupressure
Aromatherapy
The various mistakes of biomedicine
Hormone replacement therapy
Not to mention DES and thalidomide
The IUD and the resulting infertility
Cutting nerves in hands and feet to relieve cold hands and feet
Excessive use of antibiotics
Excessive "cleanliness" and resulting allergies, though what is clean is a culturally relevant definition
Iavorivka and soap
Bushovye nozhki
Russian and Ukrainian ideas of being in spiritual harmony
With self
Other people
The environment
Not violating any of the "rules" of these to remain in harmony and whole
The stealing of another person's essence, vital energy
Energy vampire