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A Comparative Study of Greek and Gagauz Healing Rituals against Fright

Activity: Talk or presentationOral presentation

Description

Sudden and intense fright or terror, and the various forms of post-traumatic stress disorder that may follow such a shock or trauma, constitutes an important object of anthropological research, especially in Latin America (susto, espanto, miedo). Testimonies of this disorder have also been recorded in many areas of Europe, in particular south-eastern Europe. This study, comparative in its approach, is based on ethnographic data gathered, on the one hand, from Greek populations living mainly in areas of Eastern Thrace, Pontus and Cyprus, and, on the other from Gagauz, Turkish speaking Orthodox Christians, in Moldova. The paper discusses and underlines the symptoms, etiology and the ways/methods of treating this disorder. The aim of this paper is to explore those folk healing strategies which are based on a combination of empirical and symbolic systems of ritual action and verbal speech acts. Divination, which often forms an important dimension of the healing system associated with “fright,” will also be discussed here.
Period25 Jun 201330 Jun 2013
Event title16th Congress of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research: Folk Narrative in the Modern World: Unity and Diversity
Event typeConference
LocationVilnius, LithuaniaShow on map