Reflexion of traditional outlook in ethnomedicine of Turk-speaking peoples of North Caucasus

The system of national medical knowledge, its functioning and content are characterised by considerable integrity. National, that is traditional-household or everyday knowledge, as well as scientific, does not only contain information on things, their properties and displays, but also represents the empirical level of social consciousness. The picture of the world developing out of diverse social and cultural interactions influences the main areas of human existence. The same is true for medicine. Magical-animistic outlook, essential moment for which was the understanding of illness not as the natural phenomenon, but as a display of supernatural forces alien to the person, has been connected with the mythological picture of the world. Illness was considered as consequence of a sin, fault, a sign of punishment. Doctoring had to consist in pacification of an evil ghost by sacrifice, creation of prayers or any other devices, the essence of which was to outwit, intimidate or propitiate a malicious demon. Certainly, except the irrational causes of various illnesses, hill people also allocated illnesses caused by a physical factor, or, in ethnographic terms, rational reasons. But even the rational method of treatment most apparently by means of rituals became sacral. The most widespread method of treatment of various diseases among turk-speaking peoples of the North Caucasus was phlebotomy. For treatment of headaches Karachays and Balkars used a method connected with the concept ''bashi tyushkendi'' - ''displacement of bones of a head''. The basic method of treatment with such a diagnosis consisted in head squeezing, which led to adjustment of the displaced bones. In the same way, according to the Turkic peoples of the North Caucasus outlook, the stomach of the person could be displaced. That is, the causality of some pathological processes in the outlook of Turkic nationalities of the North Caucasus was the displacement of the internal organs relative to the displacement centre (often navel), and the displacement of the symmetry axis of skull bones. The great role in irrational means of ethnomedicine of the specified peoples was played by various talismans, amulets, called to protect the person from possible harm, sorcery and illness. Some trees, plants, parts of the body of animals were also considered as amulets. The most archaic amulets still existing are dog excrement, barley kernels, wood pieces of coal sewn up in a fabric and attached to adult people's clothes in an invisible place, and in visible ones - for small children. Bones and canines of various animals, in particular, a wild boar, a goat, a ram, a fox, wolf teeth, bear paws were considered as means for illness treatment. In some families wolf teeth are still considered a symbol of courage and respect and preserved as talismans. On the whole, the formation of traditional medical culture of the Turkic peoples of the North Caucasus is connected with the processes of adaptation of people to the environment. Feeling a part of the nature around, the person used everything this nature gave as medicine: plants, products of animal origin, minerals. In the course of life activity of ethnic communities a system of cultural traditions is formed which would promote the maintenance of a certain homeostasis in the given ecological niche.

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