Écrire pour guérir. Les formules magiques écrites dans la médecine populaire roumaine (XVIIe-XXe siècles)

Write to heal. Written magic formulas in Romanian popular medicine (17th - 20th centuries)

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35824/sjrs.v6i1.24897

Keywords:

magical practices, written charms, body, amulets, symbolic efficacy , folk medicine

Abstract

In traditional Romanian society, where the vast majority of the population was illiterate, writing remained mysterious and inaccessible. For the peasants from the Romanian village, writing and the book have acquired separate meanings, being used in a particular way through magico-religious rituals. In order to defend against the action of evil forces and for the healing of the sick body, the traditional community instituted ceremonial, apotropaic and thaumaturgical practices, involving a set of alternative uses of writing. The clerics played an important role in consolidating these practices. The village priests made the written amulets (apocryphal texts, prayers and incantations) intended to be worn closest to the body to ward off unclean spirits which could cause harm to women who had just given birth and to the new-born. Books and writing were seen as repositories of healing forces that could ward off disease and trouble. In the Romanian rural society, between the two World Wars, it was still believed that evil spirits, agents of disease, could be drawn from the sick person's body with the help of “healing letters” (rom. “răvașe de leac”), containing prayers, various religious symbols, names of saints but also magic formulas, often presented in an enigmatic and incomprehensible way. The formulas are written upside down, from right to left, then from left to right (like the famous palindrome “Sator arepo tenet opera rotas” or “Abracadabra”) or distributed in geometric figures (spirals, triangles, crosses). These “healing papers”, with a strong iconic charge, were applied to the body or the text and the image were drawn directly on the skin of the sufferer. Drinking water in which one had washed a plate on the surface of which healing formulas had been written or swallowing the paper on which magic formulas were written were other common practices. Romanian ethnologists have documented the survival of these practices until the mid1970s. Similar practices are found in other parts of Europe.

Author Biographies

Alexandru Ofrim, University of Bucharest

Alexandru Ofrim is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest. He obtained his PhD in the History of Mentalities at the Institute for South-East European Studies of the Romanian Academy in 1998. He owns a BA degree in History and Philosophy Faculty of History and Philosophy, University of Bucharest. His research interests are cultural history, the cultural history of the book and reading practices, the cultural history of the cities, and the anthropology of writing. His recently published books are the following: How the Old Streets Got Their Names. A cultural History of Bucharest, Éditions L’Harmattan – EME, Paris – Louvain - la Neuve, 2022; Farmecul discret al patinei și alte mici istorii culturale (The Discreet Charm of the Patina and Other Short Cultural Histories), Bucharest, Humanitas, Cultural Studies Collection, 2019; Străzi vechi din Bucureștiul de azi (Old Streets from Nowadays Bucharest), Bucharest, Humanitas, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011; Cheia şi Psaltirea. Imaginarul cărţii în cultura tradiţională românească (The Key and the Psalter: The Imagery of the Book in Traditional Romanian Culture), Piteşti, Paralela 45, 2001.

Lucia Terzea-Ofrim, University of Bucharest

Lucia Terzea-Ofrim is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest. She obtained a PhD in Philology at the Faculty of Letters, the University of Bucharest in 2001, and received a Magna cum laude distinction. Between 1996-1997 she was a Fulbright visiting researcher, studying cultural anthropology at Rackham School of Graduate Studies, Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A. The academic advisors were Katherine Verdery and Konrad Kottak. In 1989 she completed a BA degree in Philology at the Faculty of Philology from the University of Bucharest. Her research interests are the anthropology of emotions, literary anthropology, and material culture studies. Her recently books published are the following: O antropologie a emoției («What I Like I don’t Dislike». An Anthropology of Emotion, Bucharest, Paideia, 2002, 2021; Ferestre cu povești. Fereastra ca instrument antropologic (Window Stories: The Window as an Anthropological Tool, Bucharest, Monitorul Oficial, 2019.

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Published

2023-05-15

How to Cite

Ofrim, A., & Terzea-Ofrim, L. (2023). Écrire pour guérir. Les formules magiques écrites dans la médecine populaire roumaine (XVIIe-XXe siècles): Write to heal. Written magic formulas in Romanian popular medicine (17th - 20th centuries). Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies, 6(1), 100–118. https://doi.org/10.35824/sjrs.v6i1.24897