AN ORIGIN MYTH ON HEALING CENTERS AND KENGI HEALTH IN KUSKAN

As a branch of folk medicine practices, the healing centers cult includes some of the traditional medical practices in which various diseases are treated faithfully. Healing centers owners who are interested in many illnesses gain their power by taking hands from relatives who are based on blood or healing centers owners who are based on spiritual bonds. In this way, the owners of the healing centers are based on a sacred origin and the treatment technique they apply is a belief-based practice. While the treatment practices of divine origin are predominantly associated with shamanism, its spiritual aspect is emphasized, on the other hand, the transfer of treatment practice through oral tradition diversifies both the source of knowledge and the techniques of practice. Origin study of such diversified practices brings with it many difficulties while causing uncertainty in information and insecurity. However, in contrast to the oral sources of shamanism, the Sumerian mythical texts are clearer and more interesting, both as written sources and as historical depth and ancientity. The treatment method developed against the sickness of the Sumerian God Enki is cursed, which is the source of the healing centers cult which is a pillar of today's Turkish folk medicine practices. The Sumerian mythic narrative, which we assume as a cultural gene, overlaps with the practices of kengi healing centers that treat kengi disease cure wiht each other. It can be said that while this overlap reveals the mythical origin of the hearth cult, specifically the kengi hearth, it also sheds light on the ethnic origin of the Sumerians as well. In this study, it includes thoughts on the mythic origin of the healing centers cult and cultural origins, specifically the kengi healing centers found in the Kuskan neighborhood of Mersin's Gülnar district.