Folk Medicine in the 15th–18th-Centuries Written Sources: Sacrificial Rituals and Their Reflections in the 20th–21st-Centuries Incantations and Beliefs

Abstract

The study helps to trace the meaning, possible origin, and development of some therapeutic methods of folk medicine. The hypothesis of the study: in some incantations and beliefs, the disease is imaginably transferred to another object and transmitted to gods in a similar way as in sacrificial rituals. The aim of work: to collect and evaluate data on religious ritual of sacrifice in the 15–18 c. written sources; to determine the reflections of such sacrifices in the 20–21 c. incantations, beliefs. The object of the investigation: 15–18 c. written sources, where knowledge (fragments of knowledge) about the religious ritual of sacrifice is found. The study uses comparative, analytical, and interpretive methods. The historical-comparative method is used to compare the mythical material of historical sources written at different times (15–18 c.). The recorded mythical information is also compared to the archival and author′s data. The application of this method reveals the transformation of mythical material in the context of historical change. In therapeutic sacrificial rituals and some incantations, beliefs the process of transmission disease to gods consists of two stages: 1) by gestural and verbal actions, the disease, as content, is supposedly transferred to another object; 2) by certain actions the disease transferred object is transmitted to gods. In sacrificial religious rites and some incantations and beliefs, the offering or disease (object) transmission methods to gods are the same: burning; throwing into the water; digging into the ground (muck); placing in the sacrificial place, sanctuary; throwing, spreading; handing over to wolves (dogs); consumed by rite participants; libation; placing into/on a tree. In incantations, beliefs the differences of transmission methods and place are related to the exceptional features of disease as a content and the regulation of individual treatment. In sacrifice rituals and some incantations and beliefs, only the transmitted object differs – the offering (general part of a meal) or the disease (object), but the addressee (gods), the goals (help, protection, grace, thanksgiving), the transfer process (in therapeutic goat sacrifice), the transmission methods and place are identical or nearly identical.