LOREDANA-MARIA ILIN-GROZOIU, Contribuții la cercetarea medicinei populare din Oltenia (Contribution to the research of the traditional medicine from Oltenia)

LOREDANA-MARIA ILIN-GROZOIU
Cercet. şt. III, dr., Institutul de Cercetări Socio-Umane „C.S. Nicolăescu-Plopşor” al Academiei Române, din Craiova;
E-mail: lorelayy2007@yahoo.com

Abstract
Our research, based on the information that the performers from Oltenia supplied, which resulted from the personal field investigations, endeavours a succinct approach on the subject of the traditional medicine from Oltenia, with special attention to the tradition of healing by using empirical and magical remedies.
In the first part, there special attention was paid to the archaic traditional medicine, which included only the belief in demons and the traditional incantations, the healer being convinced that the cure used to depend on the combination between the natural elements with the magical ones, along with the religious rituals. Moreover, there was analysed the role and the status of the traditional therapeutic agent, which was based on the observation of the sick person, on the identification of the reason and cause for becoming ill, in order to find the adequate methods for fighting against and heal it.
In the second part, there were exemplified diverse categories of remedies, used by our forefathers, in their rituals of prophylaxis and therapy. There was given special importance to the narratives of the foreign travellers from the Middle Age, who confirmed that the autochthonous population was using the food and the healing plants to preserve their health and prevent diseases.
In the third part of the research, there were reproduced, based on the information supplied by our questionnaires, the empirical proceedings in the treatment of the internal and external illnesses, utilised by the dwellers from the investigated region, accentuating the moments of great existential trials, when the disease endangered the human’s health; there were evidenced the traditional beliefs, the interdictions and the superstitions circumscribed to the medical practices.

Keywords
traditional medicine, healer, belief, superstitions, illness