Last class Todays class

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Last class Todays class

• Beliefs about witches (as opposed to real
  healers)
• Born and learned witches
• The process of accusation
• Egg ceremony again

• A bit more about accusations certain type of
  thought
• Witch beliefs and ancient religion?
• Intro. to Healing Logics using the distance of
  this course for a new look at the here and now

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Halloween parallels

• Halloween 2003 compared to 2002
• Why the change?
• Halloween as fun
• Halloween as dangerous and scary
• Razorblades in apples and pins in candy
• Fear of neighbors
• Fear of Trick-or-Treaters

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Witchcraft accusation analogy

• Healer gt witch with little provocation
• Doing egg ceremony counter-clockwise
• Setting candles story
• Blame the victim applied to witch
• In rape cases
• Klikushestvo as relief
• Explains family problems
• Relief from problems trip to monastery
• Risk of blame why were YOU the victim?

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Compulsion to undertake the profession ancient
roots

• Remnants in folktales only
• Baba Iaga the fairytale witch
• Is also a mistress of natural forces
• Possesses secret/sacred knowledge
• Her interaction with young women and men like
  remnant of initiation
• She is a remnant of a goddess figure or
  priestess?

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Girl driven from home Conflict with
step-mother Sees horseman of morning
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The fiery horseman of noon
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The horseman of night
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Baba Iaga Please note her masculine
features She is associated with plants, herbs,
food
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Baba Iaga is not only mistress of motion she
flies in a mortar and controls the horsemen.
She also has a house that can move, conceal its
door. It is on chicken legs
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The gift of Baba Iaga is magical and powerful
Fixes the girls family situation
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Baba Iaga interpreted

• Inversion, religion demonized
• Beelzebub lt Baal
• Baba Iaga initiates young women and men
• Initiation is like death and rebirth
• Her house is like the house described in red
  death legends
• Red death as an earlier practice
• Clearest remnant is the death of the Stolpnik
• Also the peculiar Russian coffin like house

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Using cultural distance to look at American
material

• Early medical practice, folk medicine are
  disparaged
• Demand of exceptional proof
• Healing hands example
• At same time you want it to work, and to work
  magically
• How often does biomedicine work?

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Biomedical failures

• Hormone replacement therapy
• Thalidomide
• IUD
• Cutting nerves in hands and feet, even tonsil
  removal
• Excessive use of antibiotics
• Different ideas of cleanliness

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Folk medicine

• Dads cures and his dual attitudes
• Getting tooth drilled in Turkish village
• David Huffords points
• Lyme disease
• Cranberry juice and urinary tract infections
• Testing the healing power of prayer
• How folk medicinal practices come into being
• Observation (and testing)
• Transmission by custom and practice

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Folk medicine cont.

• Botanicas and Santeria article services offered
• Desire for same sort of support, understanding
• Prozac and Zoloft DO work the American myth
• Hildegard von Bingen and the power of art

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More art and health

• Tattoos as art is the tattoo done for beauty?
• Does the pain of a tattoo offer benefits?
• Body building the body on display as created
  object
• Anorexia quest for a beautiful body? Quest for
  pain?

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The Gatlinburg combination

• Dollywood and other music venues
• Bungee jumping, roller coasters, other rides
• Communing with nature
• Shopping
• Marriage palaces

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Issues with folk practices

• Ethnic traditions used by those outside the
  tradition sweat lodges
• What if they make a mistake, as with egg ceremony
• Barre Toelken
• Herbal supplements sold commercially
• How clean?
• Use of mercury
• But could they be right ?

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Back to medicine

• Various practices now accepted
• Acupuncture and acupressure
• Aromatherapy
• Support groups they talk
• Different visions of body and of health in other
  cultures may expand understanding
• Stealing energy