FOLK MEDICINE OF THE LOWER TEREK COSSACKS (19th - EARLY 20th CC.)

Abstract

The article deals with an underinvestigated problem of ethnography of the Lower Terek Cossacks - folk medicine. The author of the article considers the methods of treatment of the most common diseases among the Lower Terek Cossacks in the 19th-early 20th cc. - the diseases of heart, gastrointestinal tract, genitourinary system, head, musculoskeletal system, skin, as well as neuropsychic, children’s diseases and others. It is shown that using the medicines of vegetable and animal origin, hirudotherapy, diets, physical action and accumulated empirical knowledge, healers managed to treat many diseases, thereby compensated for a shortcoming of medical institutions and healthcare personnel. The analysis of the collected field ethnographic data testifies to the wide use of irrational methods of treatment in folk medicine. The popularity of healing magic is explained by the fact that in most cases it achieved the desired result and had a certain psychotherapeutic effect. Folk medicine of the Lower Terek Cossacks has much in common with that of the Dagestan peoples in the methods of treating various diseases and its close connection with the ecological characteristics of the environment. Ethnographic materials show that in extreme cases (bullet wounds, puncture wounds), the Lower Terek Cossacks sought treatment from mountain physicians who were skilled in treating gunshot wounds. Examples of interaction between the Lower Terek Cossacks and mountain peoples in various spheres, including folk medicine, indicate that the Lower Terek Cossacks have blended in with the North Caucasus cultural space and become an integral part of it though they were not the indigenous population of the region.