A piece of thread around the wrist: Tuvan experience of health as seen in interviews with students from the Tuvan diaspora in Tomsk
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25178/nit.2020.1.1Keywords:
social phenomenology; Alfred Schutz; Tuva; Tuvans; methodology of lifeworld studies; lifeworld; Tuvan student; traditional medicineAbstract
The variety of contemporary systems of healthcare, as well as practices and methods of healing in the modern world of many cultures, has led to the issue of their intercompatibility. In the study of the way Tuvans experience health this problem gives rise to the concern whether the way Tuvan youth imagines health as part of their life and world has been able to survive in the situation when it has to coexist with both alternative non-conventional healing practices and conventional medicine.
For its empirical basis, our study relied on ten semi-formal interviews (2019) with ethnic Tuvans from the Republic of Tuva who came to Tomsk to study at the local branch of the Russian State University of Justice. The study’s aim was to describe the experience and practices of preserving health among Tuvan students and the variability of this experience. Methodological foundation of the study was found in Alfred Schutz’s paradigm of social phenomenology and aimed at “providing qualitative descriptions of the interlocutor’s lifeworld” (S. Kvale).
The study has revealed that the cultural background of the respondents helped them understand health as linked to the following topics: “natural” character of their lifeworld; its sacral status; the experience of the magical in healing practices; the feeling of belonging to ancestral tradition; ritual organization of life; holistic understanding of health as an entity combining religious, metaphysical, aesthetic and practical aspects. Of special interest is the practice of weaving together pieces of thread to be worn around the wrist. Many respondents mentioned this as a symbol of health, protection and welfare.
Their experience of preserving good health puts respondents into the situation of what may be described as “medical syncretism”: treatment in a state-run medical institution may well be combined with non-conventional medicine, with emphasis placed on traditional treatments and folk medicine. In the attitudes towards their health, Tuvan students show both the “fundamentalist” (following their cultural traditions) and the “modernist” (leaving these traditions behind) trends.
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How to Cite
Kirilenko E. I. A piece of thread around the wrist: Tuvan experience of health as seen in interviews with students from the Tuvan diaspora in Tomsk. The New Research of Tuva. 2020, no. 1. URL: https://nit.tuva.asia/nit/article/view/902 (access date ... ). DOI: 10.25178/nit.2020.1.1
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Author Biography
Elena I. Kirilenko, Russian State University of Justice (West Siberian branch)
Doctor of Philosophy, Associate Professor, Department of Humanities and Socio-Economic Disciplines, Russian State University of Justice (West Siberian branch).
Postal address: 2 Lenin Sq., 634050 Tomsk, Russian Federation.
Tel.: +7 (3822) 51-51-80.
Email: e.kirilenko@ngs.ru
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