‘No "wise" men or women but real doctors!': Stigmatizing discourses on magical healing in Ostrobothnian newspapers

Magical healers and physicians were among those who provided healing in the medical market of pre-modern Swedish-speaking Ostrobothnia. Using newspaper texts published in the region about local occurrences of magical healing as source material, this article examines through discourse analysis how ma...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Kouvola, Karolina (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: [publisher not identified] 2022
In: Approaching religion
Year: 2022, Volume: 12, Issue: 1, Pages: 98-116
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Pohjanmaa / Rural area / Healer / Stigmatization / Superstition / Press / History 1800-1900
RelBib Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
AG Religious life; material religion
KBE Northern Europe; Scandinavia
ZA Social sciences
ZB Sociology
Further subjects:B Discourse Analysis
B vernacular narrative
B cunning folk
B Stigma
B magical healing
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Summary:Magical healers and physicians were among those who provided healing in the medical market of pre-modern Swedish-speaking Ostrobothnia. Using newspaper texts published in the region about local occurrences of magical healing as source material, this article examines through discourse analysis how magical healing was stigmatized in public discourse at the turn of the twentieth century. Two main discourses that stigmatize magical healing are evident from the data: the religious and enlightenment discourses. These show the power relations involved in the condemnation of magical healing as an example of the rural population’s superstition and naivity. This article offers new information about stigmatizing discourses on healing methods and practices that were considered witchcraft in a period when a community was undergoing cultural changes that affected health beliefs and power relations.
ISSN:1799-3121
Contains:Enthalten in: Approaching religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.30664/ar.110933