FOLK MEDICINE AS A SYMBOL AND CONFIRMATION OF BELONGING TO A LOCAL COMMUNITY

Abstract

In this paper the author is trying to find an answer to the question of why is it, contrary to all expectations, that folk medical practice is still in full sway in some parts of the country, in spite of the obvious dominance of the so called scientific medicine. Taking the example of the Sjenica-Pester Plateau, the author demonstrates how it is possible, through the study of some contemporary concepts, to perceive the critical moments which endanger the existing traditional forms of culture. One of the consequences of great changes that are taking place, and of living within the two different cultural systems, the rural and the urban one, is a certain psychological insecurity, and persons who have thus been effected seek help from the suggestive curing folk medical technigues. The unique feature of these symbolical acts offers the basic efement of identification with the indigenous rural culture, especially at times of equilibrium disturbances caused by an illness, or, which occurs - and this is a more frequent case - upon occasional and temporary urban migrants’ returns to their village setiing who feel a strong need to confirm their ties and the sense of local belonging anew.