Klaipėdos universitetas

of the pre-Christian religion, performed various duties, including therapeutic activities. The descriptions in sources indicate that the nature of the therapeutic assistance they provided varied according to the magic activity they performed. The healing activities of vaidilučiai have not been systematically studied. This article analyses data on the therapeutic activities of different groups of vaidilučiai in 15th to 18th-century written sources, and identifies traces of these activities in 19th to 21st-century folk medicine based on archival records and the author’s healing faith records. The research helps us to trace the meaning and origins of some therapeutic methods of folk medicine, and the possible development of traditions.

Teofanija – dievybės pasirodymas, apsireiškimo pasauliui aktas. Akmens ir dendromorfinės teofanijos yra buvusios akistatos (dievų apsilankymo ar veiklos) pėdsakai. Todėl teofanija galima bet kada arba bent jau įmanoma tam tikru metu, pvz., ištikus negandai ar ligai. Teofanijos vietos yra lankomos tikintis pasveikti ar išsaugoti sveikatą, atliekamos terapinės procedūros, ritualiniai veiksmai. Šiame straipsnyje analizuojami duomenys apie akmens ir dendromorfines teofanijas XV–XVIII a. rašytiniuose šaltiniuose ir nustatomos šių teofanijų refleksijos XIX–XXI a. liaudies medicinos terapiniuose metoduose, remiantis archyviniais ir autorės gydomųjų tikėjimų užrašymais.

According to 15th to 18th-century written sources, priests-vaidiluciai, successors to the servants of the cult of the pre-Christian religion, performed various duties, including therapeutic activities. Descriptions in sources indicate that the nature of the therapeutic assistance they provided varied according to the magic activity they performed. The healing activities of vaidiluciai have not been systematically studied. This article extends the analysis of data on the therapeutic activities of different groups of vaidiluciai in 15th to 18th-century written folk sources, and identifies the reflection of these activities in 15th to 18th-century folk medicine based on archive records and healing faith records. The research helps to trace the meaning and origin of some therapeutic methods of folk medicine, and the possible development of traditions.

In the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, an opposition between official medicine and folk medicine, partly based on ethnic aspects, formed in Lithuania. The article analyses the alternation in the ‘self-other’ opposition in the choice of treatment. Folk medicine traditions existed alongside standard medicine in the town of Aukštadvaris, which was characterised as multi-confessional in the first half of the 20th century (despite the tensions, Lithuanians, Poles, Jews and Tartars lived together harmoniously). Faith healers with extraordinary qualities or powers were classified as ‘other’. So the choice of treatment reveals two aspects: the concept of ethnicity, and mythical perception (when dealing with those engaged in other activities). Studies have shown that in a disaster or illness, the ‘self-other’ opposition declines. An opposition between official medicine and folk medicine did not form in the Aukštadvaris area.