HEALING PRACTICE OF THE RUSSIANS OF THE SOUTHERN URALS: THE TECHNIQUE OF «TRANSFERRING» AN AILMENT FROM A PERSON TO OTHER OBJECTS

The relevance of the study is due to the fact that the folk medicine of the Russian population residing in the Southern Urals (Ufa province) is one of the poorly studied but most important layers of ethnic culture, in which continuity of ethnic traditions, the dynamics of worldview and religious identity are clearly manifested. The purpose of the study is to identify the method of «transmitting» the disease from a person to a living or inanimate object in the healing practice of the Russians of the Southern Urals. Materials and methods. The object of this study is the Russian peasant population of the Southern Urals, formed in the XVI–XX centuries from the natives of the northern, central, southern and Western European governorates of Russia. The chronological framework of the study is from the end of the XIX to the middle of the XX century, when ethnic traditions were still preserved. The sources were the author’s field materials and information on folk medicine of the Russians of the Southern Urals in published and handwritten works of R.G. Ignatiev, D.K. Zelenin, M.V. Kolesnikov, A.I. Kiikov, N.P. Kolpakova, B.G. Akhmetshin, Yu.G. Dinikeeva. Research methods: contrast of previously published and handwritten field materials on folk medicine of the Russians of the Southern Urals, comparison with other peoples and regions. Research results. The «transfer» of the disease was carried out with the help of certain magical actions, as well as incantations and prayers. The objects of the ailments «transfer» were domestic animals (cats, dogs, chickens, roosters, goslings), as well as fish (pike), trees (birch), fire, stove smoke. Domestic animals were certainly turned to in the case of infants treating, allegedly because of violation of the prohibition for pregnant women to kick pets. «Leveling» some diseases with symptoms of redness (measles, rubella, erysipelas, stubble of the newborns) was achieved by using a red cloth. The actions performed during the treatment were associated with shaking the child, lifting him up and taking him aside, repeating the shape of the Orthodox cross, delineating the sore spot, wrapping (the trunk of a tree with the patient’s belt), spraying water through a burning splinter (in sores on the face). Conclusions. The ways of getting rid of ailments by «transferring» to other objects in the Southern Urals by Russian settlers were passed down from generation to generation until the middle of the XX century, the period of preserving traditional viewpoints about their causes (violation of prohibitions and, as a result, penetration of harmful entities into a person). The ways of treatment are associated with the attributes of peasant life and characterize the religious syncretism of Russian peasants.