From My Body to the Body
From My Body to the Body

Summary/Abstract: Based on a couple of interviews taken during a field research done in Cluj County, the study presents on the one hand the theoretical approach regarding the body and, on the other hand, some common people's points of view in this matter. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to present a relatively long excursion into Romanian peasant mentality regarding one’s own body in relation with the modern medical action. For that purpose, I follow the relations between the two parties: peasants and physicians, observing the specific relation of the subjects with modern medicine. The phenomenon was analyzed over time, which allowed us to notice the changes occurring during the last years / the communist period / that made people think about their own bodies, or in other words how their views changed if their relationships with their bodies changed. It is obvious that in the Romanian society during the communist regime, the peasants showed a strong resistance to medical assistance and the key for understanding such an attitude is culture: the strong beliefs in God’s intervention took precedence over the State’s measures through its representatives, the physicians.

• Details
• Contents