Body in Russian Magical Practices: Ritual Specialists – Patients

N. E. Mazalova

List of issues > «Geoarchaeology, Ethnology, and Anthropology Series». 2023. Vol 45

Body in Russian Magical Practices: Ritual Specialists – Patients

Full text (russian)

Author(s)

N. E. Mazalova

Abstract

The paper is devoted to one of the most important components of the world model – the human body in contacts with the natural world. The notions of transformations of human body in the rituals of sending of illnesses and curative in Russians, including Russian population of Siberia, which for a long time kept archaic notions of mythological anatomy, are considered. In the Russian tradition there is a complex set of ideas about the structure of the body, its functioning, and various transformations. A special “body language” has been developed, which is acquired by a person through observation, imitation of the actions of other people (“social” borrowing). In folk tradition, it is formalized by means of natural language in the form of narratives, beliefs, conspiracies, etc. and conveys symbolic information about the dialogue between human and the natural world. The relationship with the otherworld is encoded in the connection of the human body and spirits and diseases. A witch's knowledge and power are based on the content of a foreign substance in her body. The sorcerer consciously “houses” the helper in his body, resulting in the transformation of his body. He also sends disease to the person, as a result of which there is bodily exteriorization – the boundaries of the patient's body are violated, it loses integrity, is deformed, some organs are destroyed, decayed, destroyed or are found in the outside world. The words used by the healer in the healing rituals have a certain corporeality. The words are likened to the human body and some of its substances. They have similar attributes to the body: strength, mobility, etc. In some cases, the boundaries of the healer's body are violated, and disease invades his body. The sorcerer cures the disease at the cost of the sacrifice – his own health. Often the body of the victim of the sorcerer behaves passively, and the spoilage destroys it. It is concluded that the sorcerer has a mechanism for controlling the bodies of people based on his possession of the links with the natural world; he makes the bodies submissive, obedient and dependent on his will and ritual actions. A healer, like a sorcerer, also wields power over bodies, but this power is not of a coercive nature; on the contrary, he does not discipline the bodies, but makes them free. If the treatment was carried out by a “strong” witch doctor, the patient's body, under his guidance, began to behave actively, resisting the disease and free from it.

About the Authors

Mazalova Nataliya Evgenievna, Doctor of Sciences (History), Senior Researcher, Center for European Studies, Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) RAS; 3, Universitetskaya emb., St. Petersburg, 190031, Russian Federation, e-mail: mazalova.nataliya@mail.ru

For citation

Mazalova N. E. Body in Russian Magical Practices: Ritual Specialists – Patients. Bulletin of the Irkutsk State University. Geoarchaeology, Ethnology, and Anthropology Series. 2023, Vol. 45, pp. 93–108. https://doi.org/10.26516/2227-2380.2023.45.93 (in Russ.)

Keywords

body, corporeality, somatic ideas, ritual specialists, bodily exteriorization, mythological anatomy, incantations.

UDC

39+316.347+316:61

DOI

https://doi.org/10.26516/2227-2380.2023.45.93

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