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PHILOSOPHICAL SCIENCES
THE ROLE AND PLACE OF MARI PAGAN MEDICINE IN PHILOSOPHICAL TEACHINGS Golovin V.F. (Russian Federation) Email: [email protected]
Golovin Vitaly Fedorovich - Grand Master of the Mari Pagan Traditional Medicine and Wellness System, Specialist in Traditional and Alternative Health Improving Systems, Full Member of RANM (Russian association of alternative medicine), Founder and President, ACADEMY OF HARMONY AND HEALTH,
Junior Editor, INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE USA, KAZAN
Abstract: the analysis presented in the article serves as the basis for the author's statement that the peoples of the world, among whom the Mari occupied a worthy place, influenced the formation of the inexhaustible pool of human values and knowledge. Among such values and knowledge were achievements in philosophy, science, literature, fine arts, sculpture, architecture, construction and, of course, medicine. Many epochal achievements of the Mari ethnic group were the objects of emulation and were therefore instrumental in the further development of intellectual contributions to the evolution of human culture, including medical science.
The pagan knowledge and outlook of this people are naturally associated with the development of philosophical doctrine, improvement and transformation of the unique ancestral knowledge and modern representatives of the Mari El Republic and its culture. The Mari's pagan system of values was the foundation upon which original folk medicine was formed. It is not only a phenomenon of the local culture but also of the national religious system, which was called the Chimari Yule. This kind of pagan religious form is among the most ancient religions in Russia, and it is a unique phenomenon in the ontogeny of philosophical doctrine.
Keywords: philosophical doctrine, values, ideology, religion, paganism, heathen, pagan medicine, Mari El Republic, ethnicity, national culture, Mari.
РОЛЬ И МЕСТО МАРИЙСКОЙ ЯЗЫЧЕСКОЙ МЕДИЦИНЫ В СИСТЕМЕ ФИЛОСОФСКОГО УЧЕНИЯ Головин В.Ф. (Российская Федерация)
Головин Виталий Федорович - Гранд Мастер марийской традиционной народной медицины, Специалист по восточной медицине, Мастер оздоровительных практик, Член Национальной Ассоциации Народной Медицины, Член Международной Профессиональной Ассоциации Народной Медицины, Академия гармонии и здоровья, младший редактор, Международный научный журнал International Journal of Complementary and Alternative Medicine USA, г. Казань
Аннотация: в статье проведен анализ, на основании которого автор констатирует, что народы мира, среди которых достойное место заняли марийцы, повлияли на формирование неиссякаемого источника общечеловеческих ценностей и знаний. Среди них достижения в философии, естествознании, литературе, изобразительном искусстве, скульптуре, архитектуре, строительстве и, безусловно, медицине. Многие известные миру достижения марийского этноса стали предметом подражания и воздействовали на дальнейшее развитие интеллектуального вклада в эволюцию человеческой культуры и, безусловно, медицинской науки.
Языческие знания и мировоззрение этого народа естественным образом связаны с развитием философского учения, усовершенствованием и трансформацией уникальных знаний предков и современных представителей культуры Республики Марий Эл. Марийская языческая система ценностей стала той основой, на которой сформировалась оригинальная народная медицина. Она является не только феноменом локальной культуры, но и национальной религиозной системой, которая получила название «Чимарий Юла». Именно эта разновидность языческих религиозных форм относится к наиболее древним религиям на территории России и является неповторимым феноменом в онтогенезе философского учения.
Ключевые слова: философское учение, система ценностей, мировоззрение, религия, языческое верование, язычники, чимари юлла, языческая медицина, Республика Марий Эл, этнос, народная культура, марийцы.
Integrated scientific research of a vividly traceable interdisciplinary nature, as embodied in this article, requires the surveyor to apply various methods of analysis. In this case, the ethnographic method of studying Mari pagan medicine within the context and structure of philosophical doctrine is relevant. Ethnology is characterized by a multifaceted approach to the research subject, including the use of sources and data obtained through allied disciplines. This has required the development and improvement of methods for the collection of historical materials as well as the methods of researching, understanding and perceiving ethnicities and their traditional mundane cultures, particularly in terms of philosophy.
Given the process of collecting and analyzing ethnographic materials, the researcher should strive to collect the most insightful, reliable facts concerning the object of his or her academic inquiry.
The method of personal observation employed by the author of the article is also used while performing all ethnographic, philosophical and conceptual characteristics relating to Mari pagan medicine. It is based on the researcher's personal contact with the object of academic interests. In short-term expeditions, the researcher can only discover, observe and record the information and facts of interest to him or her. In stationary and partly long-term expeditions, the researcher smoothly integrates with the everyday life of the community being studied. The researcher will observe and study it from the inside, doing so through participation in economic and social family life as well as in various holidays, rituals and so on.
Personal observations of this kind are made in order to collect items of information as well as for a wide or complex data collection according to a given special program. All personal observations are recorded by standard recording methods with the help of modern technical means.
The method of direct observation, accompanied by various methods of recording and describing the research subject (i.e., Mari pagan medicine) retains a permanent value and informative objectivity. Thus, it explains a traditional mundane culture better than its scientific interpretation can.
The main concept of the method is the type, meaning the ideal model constructed by the researcher, which conveys the most significant features and traits of the phenomena, objects or ethnic community being studied. Concurrently, a significant amount of minor, nonessential factual material is rejected.
Such procedures of typological analysis as classification, typology and periodization are used in ethnology.
Classification involves the arrangement of the factual material thus collected as well as the development of real and specific patterns of a traditional mundane culture according to the similarity and uniformity of basic features and traits. Thus, the religious, racial, linguistic, economic and cultural, historical and ethnographic and other classifications of ethnicities were developed in ethnology.
Typology is a scientific, theoretical pattern of arranging and distinguishing the features of a traditional mundane culture, which is based on the combination of several features characterized by the research subject. Because typology is a peculiar tool of scientific research, its procedure involves the detection of a certain number of features and attributes, some of which are distinct and some of which are similar. The more of such features there are, the more complex the typology
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being developed will be. This suggests that typology always provides the hierarchical structure of the objects being studied, ranging from the general level to the individual level.
Periodization involves the development of scientific patterns of coordinate characteristics of traditional mundane culture in the process of their temporary development. In considering ethnicity and traditional mundane culture in the process of development, the studies in ethnology, philosophy and culture distinguish the respective epochs, stages, periods, etc. Periodization is clearly manifested in archeology (i.e., the history of primitive societies) and in the study of problems related to ethnogeny. For example, while studying the history and culture of the Mari, the epochs of the formation of the primitive society and primitive community, as well as the degeneration of the primitive society, are singled out, and each of them has stages and certain periods.
Typological analysis, as a particular method of scientific research, works well when all the above-mentioned procedures for the analysis of the Mari pagan medicine are combined. Such a combination not only analyzes the recorded phenomena of traditional mundane culture but also determines specific objects that haven't been recorded and studied by philosophical science.
It should be stated, given the framework of the topic of this article, that there is a cultural and historical theory of W. Dilthey that does not deny positivism. Actually, it complements positivism with a category of understanding that deals in spiritual, intangible phenomena. Mari pagan medicine can be considered part of it.
A significant aspect of this approach is the desire to connect inner experiences with external manifestations of culture; to show the interaction between the personal world and the macrocosm of the objectified entities (culture) of the Mari people. One of the most prominent followers of this trend was A. Kreber, who established as a thesis the need for empathy and internal understanding of cultures, such a need being fundamental based on the concept of "the use in another ethno-cultural environment." Thus, the scientist proved the ethnographic method of participant observation, which has become widely used in studies on organizational cultures.
The anthropological study of organizational culture includes the consideration of a number of relations in the context of which the culture is studied. These are such explanatory categories singled out by A. Adler:[8] the relationship of organization and environment, the nature of human activity, the nature of reality and truth, the nature of time, human nature, the nature of human relations, and the degrees of homogeneity and heterogeneity of the group.
It should be noted that, while characterizing pagan medicine in the aspect of the method, primarily it means the methodological tools--particularly the long-term participant observation of representatives of the ethnicity--as well as the collection of documents.
The main point that distinguishes the ethnographic method--and thus the one that should be emphasized--is a special ethical approach to the research subject and data analysis as a means to resolve the problem of the ethical closed nature of the culture.
It should be noted that, although ethnographic studies of the cultural and philosophical nature of the chosen subject have already been conducted (G.A. Arkhipov, L.A. Garanin, O. Gerasimov, V.A. Eroshkin, I.G. Ivanov, A.S. Kazimov, Yu.A. Kaliev, T.I. Kozlova, T.A. Kryukova, V.F. Pashukov, G. Prokushev, K.N. Sanukov, G.A. Sepeev, L.S. Toydibekova, A.V. Khlebnikov, G.E. Shkalina and others), little research has been done in regard to the issues concerning the analysis of Mari pagan medicine and the identification of its place in the structure of philosophical doctrine. Therefore, the topic of this article has a high degree of relevance.
The Mari reside densely in Mari El Republic. According to the USSR 1989 tabulation of census data, there were 324,000 people there (43.3% of the population of the republic). Representatives of the ethnicity live in Bashkiria (106,000 people), Tataria (20,000 people), Udmurtia (10,000 people), Nizhny Novgorod, Kirov, Sverdlovsk and other regions. Thus, they are divided into three ethnic groups: the mountain group, on the right bank of the Volga; the meadow group of the Vetluga-Vyatka interfluve; and the eastern group, mainly within the territory of Bashkiria.
Religious Mari are mainly Orthodox, as mass Christianization of the Mari took place in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. However, there are many adherents of the so-called "Mari faith," which combines Christianity and traditional religion. The traditional religion is somewhat popular among the eastern Mari [4, p. 229-231].
The formation of the Mari ethnicity took place around 1000 A.D. in the Volga-Vyatka interfluve on the basis of the Finno-Ugric tribes of the Perm-Volga ethno-linguistic community. They had left the Ananian archaeological culture of the Early Iron Age. The further ethnogenesis of the Mari people is associated with the Gorodetsk and Azelinsk cultures of the first millennium A.D. [5, p. 510-547].
The Mari was first mentioned in the tenth century in the written documents of the Khazar Khaganate, being referred to as ts-r-mis. After the invasion of the Mongol-Tatars, the lands of the Mari became part of the Golden Horde and then the Kazan Khanate. Their ethnic development took place in close contact with neighboring peoples, including the Volga Bulgarians, the Chuvashes and the Tatars. After joining Russia in the 1550s, they became closer with Russians. Many elements of culture were borrowed from them. In 1920, the Mari Autonomous District was created, in 1936 it was transformed into the ASSR, and in 1992 it was renamed as the Mari El Republic [3, p. 37].
Household holidays were of great importance in the religious life of the Mari: For example, aga payrem was a holiday in honor of the plow, and u kinde payrem was a holiday in honor of new bread. The pagan religion of the Mari was characterized by the concept of a supreme god--Kugu Yumo--accompanied by other gods, including Kava Yumo, associated with heaven and destiny, Wud Ava, "the mother of water", Ilysh Shochin Ava, the "the mother of life," etc. [7, p. 52].
Priests were the leaders in prayer, while mediators between the people and supernatural forces were also often healers and wizards. In the 1870s, the Kuga Sorta ("a big candle") appeared as part of an attempt to reform old beliefs [2, p. 60].
Many archaic views of the Mari were preserved in funeral rites, such as in the use of winter clothing as the funeral garment; the delivery of the body to the cemetery in a sleigh (even in summer); and the supply of the dead man with a briar branch in order to drive away snakes and the dog, which guarded the entrance to the realm of the dead, etc. [6, p. 107]. During the festivities and the performance of religious rites, the following musical instruments were used: bagpipes, drums and gusli, or various pipes made of wood, birch bark and horn.
According to anthropogenetics, Mari is one of the oldest native-born ethnicities in Europe. With the process of multiculturalism taking place in Europe, when all the differences among different cultures and nationalities are blurred and the general background of psychosis and neurasthenia is rapidly growing, which is expressed in numerous conflicts and the rapid growth of mortality due to cardiovascular disease, the tendencies, now readily verified, are becoming increasingly popular. This occurs in various spheres, including culture, psychology and politics. Consequently, in Europe there is great interest in those people, who have preserved their collective identity.
Academic medicine, which is based on empirical observations of ancient medicine, again directs its attention to the methods of traditional medicine in order to rethink its approach, which extends from the conservative standpoint of denial to the position of respect, understanding and cooperation. This is done in order to unite efforts and merge as a single channel, i.e., as integrative medicine.
The basis of Mari pagan medicine is the religious philosophical system Chimari Yulla. This is a natural religion consisting of early religious forms, having a centuries-long history and traditions but well preserved in the present day [1, p. 10-13].
The methods of medicine that are now known throughout the world as Chinese or "Oriental" medicine were, in ancient times, commonly among all peoples. Western countries followed the path of studying external aspects of healing through means of experimental experience and the denial of the metaphysical nature, thus developing surgery and pharmacology. The East opted for the exact opposite, denying external experience, relying exclusively on internal metaphysical processes, and developing reflexology and the theory of karma. The peoples of the Urals--the crossroads of the East and West--developed both directions concurrently. So, the concept of "Mari folk medicine" appeared. It can be proudly called a phenomenon of pagan medicine.
Pagan medicine sees success in the final result of healing but only if two conditions are combined. First, if the disease has already appeared in the patient's physical body, it is necessary to use the methods of physical influence, i.e., "methods of natural healing" and, if necessary, methods
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of physical contact, now called "physiotherapy" in medicine, as well as various methods of massage and bone-healing." Secondly, the disease can have either a physical cause, including trauma, poisoning, hypothermia, etc., or a metaphysical cause, including "the violation of general ethical standards of a religious or social nature." Therefore, special recommendations are given for the successful treatment of the patient. These include prayers, various psycho-corrective techniques of "relief meditation (kushtulymdyme yu)," etc.
The following concept is found in Mari folk medicine: The spirit and the body are two wings of the soul. The spirit is necessary for communication with God, and the body is necessary for communication with the earth. The soul is the human essence within a person. Hence, most diseases can be considered as violations of the harmony of human communication with their own respective kinds. Therefore, in order to alleviate disease and accelerate recovery, the patient is given personal recommendations concerning the way of harmonizing his or her relations in social terms. The person recovers more quickly after having normalized his or her relationships. This is an achievement of ancient medicine, which was lost by the modern world and is preserved only by certain peoples of small numbers.
The knowledge that has been preserved in the original cultures of the peoples of the Volga region and the Urals, including knowledge of ethnic methods of health correction, has a complete, cohesive form. This means that peoples of small numbers have kept the sacral knowledge of cohesive health systems. For example, the Mari health-improvement system lyzhge viy pays equal attention to the physical (body), metaphysical (soul) and transcendental (spirit) aspects. A person has sound health only if the physical state and the psycho-emotional state are synchronized against the backdrop of a high spirit (which one could characterize as a morally ethical or generally religious aspect).
Pagan medicine is based on the unity of man and nature. It is based neither on fear of the forces of nature nor on the desire to subjugate the forces of nature, but is instead based on respect, love and reverence for the forces of nature. In the Mari culture, nature is God.
The priest in the Mari religion is mainly responsible for morally ethical and spiritual upbringing. The healer, in his daily work, unites the effort to harmonize the physical and spiritual health of his patients. The healer is a man who practices pagan folk medicine. The yuzo is highly respected among the Mari and is able to recognize diseases, explain the reasons for their occurrence and correctly choose the treatment program, taking into account all possible variants of "natural medicine based on natural materials" and various other non-medicinal methods of therapy. Thus, in a practical sense the complex of methods of Mari pagan medicine provides a stable therapeutic effect for an extensive range of diseases.
Humankind is proud of the achievements of archaeologists, who occasionally find artifacts of lost civilizations, sometimes wondering how the ancient people could so correctly use certain methods and knowledge that are relevant even in the present day. Therefore, the knowledge of folk healing, accumulated through the empirical experience of healers, must be studied today. Otherwise it will be lost forever, and only after thousands of years will our descendants be able to find parts of them in their excavations.
The world of medicine is moving along the path of integration of folk and scientific medicine into a single channel of integrative medicine. Therefore, in many countries great attention is paid to the study of the heritage of traditional medicine. For example, in the USA, the National Agency for Traditional and Alternative Medicine, being a part of the U.S. Department of Health, in 2016 had a budget of $112 million. In our country, this budget is zero.
Methods of traditional medicine should be seriously and scientifically studied. For that purpose, the author suggests the creation of a specialized research institute with the involvement of a wide range of professional physicians. It is no secret that modern healers (as opposed to psychics, magicians, sorcerers and parapsychologists) really perform curative miracles of which modern medicine can only dream. There are such people with those abilities, so their knowledge and methods must be studied on a strictly scientific basis. Modern medical science has sufficient means to do so.
We, in this scientific article, used the materials from various sources (authors), including practical experience of the successful treatments by Mari yuzo healers, which have been clinically
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confirmed within the project of the Federal Service for the Supervision of Public Health and Social Development under the program titled "Scientific Clinical Experimental Center of Traditional Methods of Diagnostics and Therapy of the Federal Service for the Supervision of Public Health and Social Development" (2006 - 2012, Moscow).
Nowadays, there is still a need the study the phenomenon involving the popularity and relevance of the methods of pagan medicine. We will have to find out what it is. Is it a tribute to fashion, life pragmatism or something else? Is it possible to understand why the treatments conducted by uneducated village healers sometimes achieve serious results of which highly educated doctors can only dream?
The whole scientific interest lies in the fact that these results are not one-time occurrences. They are repeatable, and they can be explained from the standpoint of modern medical science. That is why the methods of pagan medicine found among different peoples have recently attracted great attention not only from the supporters of the revival of pagan culture but also among serious scientists, who increasingly choose this topic for their research. Among them are respected physicians, psychologists, philosophers, sociologists and ethnographers.
In conclusion, it should be noted that, in the case of Mari pagan medicine, it is necessary to describe the methods of folk (pagan) medicine used by modern healers in the long view.
Why was Marian pagan medicine chosen for the study? First, the Mari are the only people in Europe who have retained their distinct pagan culture, religion and medicine in an unchanged form, the way it was thousands of years ago. Secondly, according to anthropogenetics, the Mari are among the oldest native-born peoples in Europe.
The methods of the Mari pagan medicine healers include well-studied ones. Various techniques of bone-setting are scientifically described as methods of osteopathy and manual therapy, motion treatment, dance therapy, herbalism and other known methods. Moreover, underexplored methods can include various methods of ritual medicine, such as treatment with prayers, methods of contact and remote psychophysical impact. These methods are popularly characterized as magical. However, some of these methods are also used in psychotherapy and psychology.
Some skeptics tend to consider such methods to be solely the result of the placebo effect. However, the results of research show that, in many cases of remote psycho-physical effects on the patient with the aim of improving the physical or mental state, the subject doesn't know about it. That is, the question of "faith or doubt" is completely irrelevant. In such cases there is no placebo effect, even when these actions are directed to animals.
What is the secret? This is the subject of this study. After all, having studied and understood the principles of success in pagan medicine, we can make a breakthrough in terms of a significant increase in the quality of treatment. There is no doubt that the methods of pagan (folk) medicine have passed the best approbation in the world, namely the centuries-long test of time. Accordingly, the further integration of folk and scientific medicine is inevitable. The author of this article shows the uniqueness and undoubted value of the Mari pagan medicine to the global scientific community, doing so from the position of official, academic medicine.
The problems described in the article can be further elucidated and resolved in the course of planning and conducting empirical studies, developing schemes of ethnographic descriptions with details of techniques that can be applied, and processing ethical problems that are actualized through means of the ethnographic method of study in the process of analyzing the role and place of Mari pagan medicine within the system of philosophical doctrine.
References / Список литературы
1. Baydimirov D.A. Reflection of traditional religion of the Mari in the everyday life // Latest solutions of modern science: collection of scientific works of post-graduate students. Edition № 2. Yoshkar-Ola. Mari State University, 2011. P. 10-13.
2. Kaliev Yu.A. Mythological mind of the Mari. Phenomenology of traditional worldviews. Yoshkar-Ola, 2003. 216 p. P. 60.
3. The Mari. Historical and ethnographic sketch. Yoshkar-Ola, 2006. 37 p.
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4. The Mari. The peoples of Russia: Encyclopedia. M., 1994. P. 229-231.
5. Peoples of European part of the USSR. V.II. / Peoples of the world: Ethnographic sketches. M., 1964. P. 510-547.
6. Toidybekova L.S Mari mythology. Yoshkar-Ola, 2007. 312 p. P. 107.
7. Shkalina G.E. Traditional culture of the Mari people. Yoshkar-Ola, 2003. 285 p. P. 52.
8. Adler N. International dimensions of organizational behavior. Boston. PWS-Kent, 1986.
