173

FOLK CONCEPTS OF ETIOLOGY AND ILLNESS

IN A NORTH INDIAN VILLAGE-

Khwaja A. Hasan

Unilversity of Lucknow, India

This paper reports a study of folk concepts of etiology and illness
in the v'llage Chinaura (pseudonym) in the district of Lucknow, Uttar Pra-
desh, India.   The study delineates people's Ideas of disease causation and
the relationship  of these ideas to the type of medical care  given to the
sick in the villlage.  It is proposed to divide the material of th's paper
Into several parts, malnly for convenilence of presentation.  Part A deals
with the concept of "social institution"  and the functlon of medicine as a
social  istititon In the folk soclety of Chinau-na.2  Part B deals with the

acklground cf tahe village uni-der study. The majol findings of t.he present

study are icuded in Part, C whilch deals with the folk concepts of etiology
of 'ilness and the medical and health practlces of the vlllagefolk. This
is follswed by a discussion on tne decision-making process connected wlth

medical a,. health practices of the villagefolk and the role of folk practi-
tioners i. "flk medicine." And flnally, conclusions of the study are sum-
marized.

A. Med'iclne as a Social Instltutlon

The concept of "tsocial institution" has been an almost indispensable
tool. in mode,.n social research.  The definition of the term soclal institu-
tion serv\Ues as the basis for other formulations0  Walter H. Hamilton has de-
fined social institution as "a way of thought or action of some prevalence

and permanence, which is embedded In the habits of a group or the customs of
a people. . ,    Our culture is a synthesis--or at least an aggregation--of
inst;U-Jion . each of whlch has Its own domain and its distinctive office.
Th fLunctTion ofr each is to set a pattern of behavior and to fix a zone of
tolerance f:' an activity or a complement of activlti?es (19  :8h). Nadel

defines the term social 'institutilon as "a standardlzed mode of social beha-
vior, or, since social behavior means co-activity, a standardized mode of
co-activt    (l953108).

Is medicine a social institutlon? The answer is "yes."  As early as
1924, Rivers wrote:, "Medicine       i . is a term fcr a set of social practices
by which man seeks to direct and control a specific group of natural phenom-
ena--viZ.  those especially affecting man himself, which so influence his

behavior as to unfit him for the normal accomplishment of his physical and
social functions-phenomena which lower his vitality and tend towards death
(192h44). Ackerknecht, a medical historian and anthropologist, has also ad-
vocated that med'iclne should be studied as a social institution and pleaded
that a comparative study of primitlve and modern medicine would be of great
value not only for medlcal history and medicine as a whole but also for en-
larging the body of knowledge of general anthropology (1942:503-521).

Medical practltioners and public health workers in recent years have
been reporting that people often do not utilize the medical and preventive
facilities at hand. In the two case studies from India that appeared in

Health, Culture and Community (1955), G. Morris Carstairs and McKim Marriot
pointed out that the western system of medicine did not fit fully in the

cultural clilmate of Indla. Harold Gould (1957) studied the implications of

74

technological change for "folk" and "scientific" medicine. He has shown

that folk medical practices were employed by the villagefolk whenever their
complaints were classifiable as "chronic non-incapacitating dysfunctions,"

while the help of western medicine was sought in complaints that were classi-
fiable as "critical incapacitating dysfunctions."

The present paper reports part of a study on "Social and Cultural

Factors Affecting Health in a Rural Community" (Hasan 1961). It was found
that the presence of an allopathic dispensary in the village for the past
fifteen years did not lead to total acceptance of this system of medicine.
The reason was that people had'developed their own ways of coping with the
problems of health and disease; their medical and health practices were

directly related to their concepts of etiology and illness, It was also

concluded that this institution was closely interconnected with such other
social institutions as magic, religion, and science. The techniques of

study were participant observation supplemented by structured interviews of

a stratified non-random sample of eighty individuals representing one family
each.

Bo The Village Background

The field work for the present study was conducted from February,

1959 to January, 1960,  In February, 1959, the village had a population of
1,190 constituting 215 families and representing two religious groups--

Hindus and Muslims. The former were 68 percent of the total population and
were di'vided into 18 castes. The crude death rate in the village was 20.1

per 1,000, For every 100 males in the village there were 81.8 females. The
total number of literates was 128, out of which only 17, that is 13.3 per-

cent, were females. No villager was a college graduate; only one graduated
from Intermediate or twelfth grade; three had attended High School; and ten
had gone up to Jumior High School.

The village Chinaura was situated in the southwestern part of the

district of Lucknow and fell within the limits of a Development Block. The
village, as well as the region of which it was a part, was predominantly

agricultural, At the Development Block headquarters there was a twenty-bed
hospital along with an outpatient clinic. This hospital was situated at a
distance of about one-and-a-half miles from Chinaura. A rural allopathic
dispensary run by the State had been "serving" the people of Chinaura and
neighboring villages for the past fifteen years.

C. Concepts of Etiology of Illness

Everey known society has developed, according to premises implicit in
its own culture, a system of values regarding health and disease and also

systematic methods for coping with illness. A review of medical history in-
dicates that three types of medical systems are practised today. On the one
hand there is "primitive medicine," i.e., medicine of the so-called primi-

tive tribes, based on a supernatural theory of disease causation and seeking
therapy in magico-religious medicine. On the other hand there is "scienti-

fic medicine" of technologically advanced people in which natural rather than
supernatural causes of disease are recognized. In between the two there is
the medicine of folk cultures, where supernatural causes are recognized for
some maladies while physical causes are recognized for others; and the two

may not be exclusive of each other, However, for convenience of presentation

here, folk mediclne is described under two headings-magico-religious and

empirical. The former term is used whenever certain diseases were believed
by the villagefolk to be caused by supernatural forces, and hence treatment
was sought In supernaturalism0  The latter term is used when physical phen-
omena were generally held to be resoonsible for causlng the disease by the
villagers, and hence certaln materla medics of mineral, plant, or aninal
origin were employed as remedies by folk experts. It may be said at the
outset that this does not mean that the villagefolk did not seek medical

aid from practitioners of western mediclne0  They did seek medical aid in
the village dispensary whenever elther more elaborate forms of folk treat-
ment were not available or the cause of the sickness was not understood by
them,

Loss of health in the village was attributed to a number of causes,
and hence treatment was of several types, Both the supernatural and physi-
cal causes of disease may be subd;ivlded according to the type of causative
agent recognized, For example, supernatural forces in disease included
ailments caused by (a) breach of taboo; (b) wrath of gods and goddesses;
(c) spirit-intrusion; (d) sor-ery; (e) effect cf the ev'il-eye; and (f)

ghost-intrusion.  There were, on the other h3and, many diseases to which
natural or phY;sical causes were at-trhbuted.  The effect of heat or cold,
wrong combinations Of foods9 oontacd  wlth certain living orgnisms, and

tblood-getting imp%-re' were scmae  t the. popularly recognized causes of cer-
tain diseases.

1.  SUpel";Iral Causes aod Ma             us Medici: This i's described

un.der the six categ-'2es 3istted above.

(a) Breach of tcc-so   Celr-ain diseases were commonly held to be caused
by breaking certain t.aboos.  Ililoit sevual reiations with a woman of

"i lower  caste was conoidered tio be responsible for g   (veneveal d seases)o
This is corrobozrated by t-he ia(c tr-,hat the incidence of venereal diseases is
high among "lower" castes as compared to "upper" castes.  Similarly, if a
person were suffering from leprosy he was believed to have committed some

such deadly  sin as molesting a poor, weak and helpless person0  Milking in
a vessel containing water (to adulterate the milk) was also consldered to
be responsible for leprosy. While it is not the aim of the present paper
to discuss the origin of such beliefs, it seems, however, important to
point out that they certainly performed an important function--that of
helping to maintain socilal order0

(b) Wrath of gods and goddesses. Some diseases were regarded to be due
to the wrath of some god or goddess. For example, mata, bar mata, or

Sitla Devi was the goddess of smallpox0  The goddess for chickenpox was

Choti mata (small goddess). It was a common belief that no treatment was
useful in smallpox or in chickenpox; on the contrary, administration of

drugs must be injurious, vlllagers saId. Small twigs of neem (Azadirachata
indica) tree were gently moved up and down on the body of the patient so as
to ease the itching sensation.  (Here we find a supernatural disease accom-
panied by a natural therapeutic practice as neem is a strong germicide.)

The gardener brought flowers whichwere offered to the goddess., Sitla, dur-
ing prayers to cool down her anger0  It is interesting that even Muslims

observed these practices, although they considered them to be Hindu prac-
tIces 0

76

Once three members of the public health staff visited the village

while the author was carrying out his field work. It was noted that hardly

five families from the entire village cooperated in the vaccination campaign.
Here the investigator had the opportunity to verify his data because it was

possible for him to distinguish between interview responses and actual prac-
tice as observed "on the ground.t" An overwhelming majority of the respon-

dents in the interviews had supplied the information that at frequent inter-
vals they had members of their family vaccinated and cattle inoculated. But
the most important aspect of the case was that members of the p5ublic health
staff, when failing--even after going from door to door--to convince people

in favor of vaccination, wrote down names of persons, especially of children,
on the vaccination record register, put Impression marks on cattle without
inoculating them, and went back after "performing their duties."

(c) Spirit-intrusion. An immaterial non-diovine being of fairly inde-

pendent existerice associated wlth a particular natural feature is known as
a spirit.  Spirits can not be perceived directly by senses and they may be

of different kinds. A disease may be regarded as due to a spirit or having
one. One of the commonly recognized evil spirits in Chinaura was Jamoga,

who is held to be responsible for attacking newly born infants and killing
them. It was believed that this spirit could enter the house through the
main gate or even through small holes in the walls of the room. It could
also enter the house in the guise of a human being. Hence nobody--except
very close relatives--were allowed to enter the room of confinement after
childbirth.  Muslims of the village also believed in the spirit Jamoga.

A number of preventive measures agalnst the "possession" of the
evil-spirit was employed by the villagefolk. At the time of childbirth,
the mother was shifted to the innermost room available. The spirit was

believed to shun fire, iron knife blades, a pair of shoes, and the skull of
a monkey; hence all these were ke7t In the confinement room near the mother
and child.  It is evident, therefc:e, t.hat as sophisticated urban people

have preventive medicine, so too the villagefolk have preventive   gic, and
the aims and objects of both are the same (Hasan et ali 1961)o

It was revealed by the respondents that Janoga attacked the jaw of
an infant, and four or five days after the attack, it was difficult for the
infant even to cry. The infant became weaker and weaker until about a week
or ten days after its birth, it would die. Thus Jamoga appears to us to be
an attack of tetanus, caused by a microbe called the tetanus bacillus0   The
causative agent usually enters the body of the infant through the wound

caused in the process of cutting the cord by an old knife, sickle or a piece
of glass by the village midwife, domin.  She would not understand anything
about-asepsis and her methods are often crude.  Treatment against the evil-
spirit was sought in obtaining the services of an exorcist who recites cer-
tain mantras (verbal formulae) to drive away the spirit.

(d) Sorce     This was another kind of witchcraft especially linked with
causing and curing disease. A person, usually female, who had supernatural
powers to do evil, was called Churail (witch). It was believed that the

witch could look into the future, escape ham, and transform herself. It

was contended that the eyes of a sorceress were so powerful that as soon as
she looked at a child, the child started to waste away and in a short time
died. Thy was she interested in killing children? Strange explanations

77

were offered in answer to this question. It was believed that a witch went
to the graveyard at midnight, dug up the body of a child and brought it

back to life.  Then she killed the child again and ate its liver.    The in-

vestigator was told that a few years ago people suspected a woman living in
the village to be a sorceress as many cases of sorcery were occurring then.
The alleged sorceress was beaten several times and then was given an ulti-

matum not to come out of her house. She remained inside the house and died
after some time. A villager said9 "There were no cases of sorcery from
then on in the village0"

The treatment against sorcery lay not in seeking medical aid from
the physician sitting in the dispensary, but in obtainring the services of

an exorcist, who usually Is a Bhao       This fellow is considered to be in
possession of specialized knowlzdge of how to drrive away the evil-spirit
or to nullfy t.. ef    '  4Y ' >:f  y 4 3e.a m -;

(e) Evil-eye. Th.e ju-<+t>.;r&eua lf;fec-t of t}he el-N;.ye on health was a
popular not-on In the v1llage. It. 'was believed that as soon as a person,
including a close relations ,tte,ed the sentence lookitng at a child, "How

beautiful the child is," the childJs hear.th might mysterlously be adversely
affected, evident in his suifering from diarrhea. Diarrhea would make the
child very weak, so weak In foet tha.t death might ensue.  Children were

considered to be most'< v ceffi;e+.ble to `he effect of 'the evyileye, but It was

by no means confined +o them. MoLdern ruedlctnIe vwa  tonsIdered to be not only

Incapable of c-'     : cast: :     evi1 'fye; L   -t-% o  the contranr  it might be
0  heIC wC  i5 t  c ?, 4 + t ?  ',n~  ,, : as   ph'IC   k  (blowiv9g  and   w hiff ing)

were considere" to be -:hc ;     'apy n       S     eftfect of the evil-eye.

(f) Gost'-It'z&i      The corncelt of the trarismligiation of souls is
fundamen*+Cat lIto Hlnd h  9 vit  it i coupled with karma, the inexorable

idea which makes eac"i b-Irth iepend upon previou!s di;e,dTs  The villagefolk,

however, believed t"nat thnere were occasions when a saul might not be trans-
formed into another body--when it might become a ghost and hover around a
particular area. This usually occurred in cases in which the individual

did not die a natural death, A ghost was believed to be in the possession
of a particular area, and it intruded into the body of whomsoever passed

through that area alone0 A ghost also possessed certain supernatural pow-
ers, e.g., it might transform itself and accomplish almost anything. It
was also believed that a ghost migh1t come to a person in the form of a

fellow human being, perhaps a close relative, ask the person to accompany
him for a certain task,, and then attack him in a lonely place.

Traveling alone during the night or even during the day in a lonely
place was considered highly dangerous.   As soon as one discussed the prob-
lem of ghostsg people would cite numerous cases of ghosts having attacked
certain individuals of the village. A Bhgat from the same village was

considered to be an expert in driving away ghosts by reciting certain man-
tras.

2.  Physical Causes and Empical Medicine. There were elements other than

superstition in people's ideas of disease causation; the supernatural
did not cover the whole range of ideas.   Experience and contact with ecity

people have also taught them to attribute "physical" or natural causes to a
number of maladies. Sine folk concepts of physical origin of disease in

78

many cases did not correspond with the etiology of disease, as understood
by medical scientists, the term "empirical" has been used to differentiate
it from the concept of "scientific." Saunders (1954:l48) has used the term
"empirical" to include all the known external factors that operate directly
on the organism to produce illness. Some of the popularly recognized empir-
ical causes of disease are discussed below.

(a) The Effect of Weather. Common colds and fever were recognized to be

due to humidity, low temperature, or getting drenched in rain for a consider-
able time. Hot waves during May and June were considered to be responsible

for an attack of loo (heat stroke).  Excessive humidity on the body was con-
sidered to be responsible for ringworm, although the role of fungus was not
known. In the case of heat stroke, unripe mangoes were put under the hot

ash of wood for a few minutes, washed, and the pulp extracted in cold water.
Common salt was added to this decoction and given to the patient.  This

helped not only in cooling the body but also in compensating salt deficiency
of the body caused by dehydration. In cases of ringworm a poultice prepared
from garlic was rubbed on the infected spot. If there was no improvement in
the patient's condition, the matter was referred to the physician either in
the village dispensary or in the city. If the physician was unsuccessful

after a few days' t rial, It sometimes happened that the patient was referred
to some folk expert in the village.

(b) The Effect of Wrong Food. The villagefolk have developed the con-
cepts of "heat" and "cold" as qualitlies of foods--some foods are hot and

others co'dwh1ch may be causes or cures of diseases0    Diarrhea, dysentery,
typhoid, cholera, et( c. were recognilsed to be caused by eating twrong" foods
or wrong combinations of food. For example, meat and milk together were

considered to be a wrong combination that might upset the stomach.  Diarrhea
in adults was recognized to be due to "excessive heat in the body."t The

remedy wa.s, therefore, sough;t In cooling the system. Meat, fish, eggs, man-
goes, jaggery, etc,O, were examples of some "hot" foods, and curd, lemon, cow
milk, etc., were some of the "coldt" foods.  In diseases attributed to the

effects of eating wrong foods, home treatment was tried first, and if that
failed, the matter was referred to the physician in the village dispensary.
A case of cholera, however, might be immediately referred to the physician.
Two decades ago, cholera was also considered to be due to the wrath of the
goddess Kali, but today this notion is no longer current.

(c) Contact with Certain Living Organisms. It was interesting to find
that another explanation for the cause of cholera was association with

flies, not because flies transferred germs, but because flies defecated on
human food. The germ theory of disease was still unknown to the village-

folk. Rabies was recognized to be caused by dog bite. Snake bite was con-

sidered to be fatal in several cases0 Interestingly, snake bite was treated
by certain experts by reciting appropriate mantras. On the other hand,

some experts might give the snake bite victim certain herbs or shrubs as
treatment.

(d) "Blood Getting Impure."' Skin diseases were recognized to be caused
by "blood getting impure,t" and hence treatment lay in purifying the blood.
Flowers of neem were saturated in a small quantity of water overnight and

the water filtered and drunkiin the morning. If the disease was prolonged,
the matter was referred to the villlage dispensary or some other physician,
hakim, or vaidy a

79

(e) Accidents and Natural Calamti''es.  In the case of a dislocated bone
due to some accident, people usually did not go outslde their village to

seek medical aid nor did they consult the physlcian0  Mahadeva Kumhar was a
bone-settet who applied oil massage 'in cases of bone dislocatlon0 However,
in cases of bone fracture, there ,wls no local treatment and the matter was
referred to a hospltal in the city0

(f) Unknown Causes0  There were many dIseases whlch were recognized to
be caused by natural forces, yet the villagefolk confessed their ignorance
about them and did not treat ;hem . bocally. Tuberculosis was considered to
be a ftnatural" disease in which there was some damage to the lung. How-
ever, the role of a bacillus was not recognized. Treatment was sought
either in the village dispensary ior in the 'ity hospitals.

A c      smpari:n of th e pr- -. '' 'wis t-at1 vcnd;cted by Saunders
(1954) i n the Amerie-cn Southrwve `e>;e8s thzat m>srn of the causes listed

above, or similar ca-ses,z    c       to bot cimi'ies.     However, there

is one important diifferencs in tlle :-eaim of C .sease causality between these
two comparable folk cutACures. While ni ro.2?rganisms were recognlzed by

Spanlsh Americans, they were not. within th,Ae reaTh of thinklng of the people
of Chinau=a.

It was i'nteres-ting to fJind. t1>  t e natural and supernatural were

sometimes Intercnangeable in the folk ideas of ChiLnaura0  A disease such as
diarrhea which was elalined in supernatural terms 'in cases with children
might be regarded as natuzral in cases with adults0

It was found that there 7vYere certain, conditlons or disabilities

caused by natural forces' -or lhich therapy was sought in supernaturalism0

For example, in cases of dog bite, people went to the ri'ver Kukrail on the
Lucknwow-Faiabad road, aa  a distance of about fifteen miles from the vil-
lage0  The victim was required t, take two baths-;-one on Sunday and the
other on Tuesday. He !-ad to carry with hi s.ome parched grain flour

(satua) and jaggery (g).    This was given to the dogs living on the bank

of the river. A small amount of clay was then pasted on the wound, and the
patient was required to cross the rhler seven times on each of the two

days. (This was possible because normally the river was very shallow and
rarely deep enough to drown a man0)  Finally, the victim was supposed to

take a full bath in the river. An exorcist removed the poison of the dog

bite by movling an iron rod seven times .rc=di the wound and reciting certainL
mantras,

Several persons in the village3 because of age, exerience, or

special interest, had more extensive knowledge 3f materia medica of animal,
plant, or mineral orlgin, although some formulae were known very commonly0

A decoctlon made of Tulsl (Oc      sanctum) in water mixed with black pepper
and goinger was a common medicine used for cmmon colds and fever.

D. T.he Decision-Making Process

There were several factors that inflluenced the vlllagefolk in thleir

decision-making process, as diverse medical and nealth practices and beliefs
were prevalent in the villlage0  The vi llagers cften depended upon the advice
of their neighbors, relatives, fellow caste men, and village elders; and

sometimes advice from several individuals might be entertained silmultaneously.

80

Here is an example of a particular case from the village. A young woman

came to stay with her parents for a short period. Her youngest son of one-
and-a-half years of age suddenly fell ill. He was passing blood in his

feces. The mother proposed to consult the doctor at the Development Block
Hospital. Some women met her while she was on her way to the hospital.

They advised her not to consult the physician because, they pleaded, her son
was suffering from tona (sorcery), and if she depended upon the medicine of
a doctor, the childrs condition might get worse. This was enough to disturb
the mother, and she came back to the village. The services of an exorcist

were obtained. As no medical aid was given to the child, his condition con-
tinued to deteriorate until he died. No one blamed the exorcist or the
women who persuaded the child's mother against consulting the physician.

Saunders, generalizing from his experience with the Spanish-speaking people

of the southwestern United States, has written in his book, Cultural Differ-
ence and Medical Care (195h):e

. . . The expected attitude toward a given element of folk medicine is
one of uncritical acceptance. Failure does not invalidate a practice
or shake the belief on which it is based. A remedy is tried, and if

it works no surprise is evinced, since that is what was expected.  If

it does not work, the failure is rationalized and something else tried.
In most illnesses the patient ultimately either recovers or dies. If

he gets well the remedial technique is credited with effecting the cure.
If he dies, the reason is not that the remedy was Inappropriate, but
that the patient was beyond help.

E. The Role of Folk Practitioners

Ackerknecht (19h2), Fejos (1959:16), and many other workers have dis-
cussed the question as to whether practitioners in magico-religious medicine
are honest or are simply cheats. Both authors are of the view that a medi-
cine man in primitive societies is not a charlatan because he does believe
in his own practices. The assumption that he is a deceiver prevails among

people less acquainted with the subject, Ackerknecht holds. Madox, as quoted
by Ackerknecht, has written:  "Investigation indicates that the ratio of

false to the true among the uncivilized is practically the same as among the
civilized."  In Chinaura, it is the quack from outside the village, usually

from the city, who deceives the poor and ignorant people. A man used to come
to the village from the city and sell his so-called medicines to the ignorant
villagers. Once he gave three small packages of colored powder to a poor old
man and charged five rupees for them. Folk practitioners operating from

within the village could not be regarded as cheats for the simple reason that
they themselves--or their relatives--were also subject to the same treatments
that they commonly used on their clients.

F. Conclusions

Discussing the reasons for the success of "primitive medicine.,"

Ackerknecht points out that "primitive medicine" contains a sufficiently

large number of medical practises which are also employed in modern western
medicine. Among these are massage, sun bath, cauterization, and surgery.
Such practices are used in the "folk medicine" of Chinaura. While these
therapeutic devices are used in magical ways in primitive societies, they

may be used in magico-religious as well as in "empirical" ways in folk soci-
eties. A second reason for the success of "folk medicine" lies in its

assimilation of many drugs used ;?n western medicine. For example, aspirin,
potassium permanganate, varlous klnds of ointments, tincture of iodine,
etc., are being increasingly used in Chinaura.

A third reason for the success of "primiti've" as well as of "folk
medicine" lies in its psychotherapeutic qualities.  Treatment of the sick
in such communities is a highly social matter. Relatives, neighbors, and
friends assemble and their presence helps to cheer the invalid and to as-

sure him that he is not isolated from his society. And firally, an impor-
tant explanation for the success of "folk" and "primitive" medicine lies

in the fact that out of one hundred patients falling ill, seventy-five of
them usually can be cured "autonmtically" (because the body is usually

strong enough to ward off ordinary maladies). All the same, the patient

tineeds" some treatment whether it is blowing, conjuring, wearing charms or
amulets, or taking a concoction of some lherb.  "Folk medicine," therefore,

gives psychological satisfaction to people. The success of "folk medicine"
lies in that it is a functlonal and integrated part of the whole culture--a
social institution--which enables the members of a folk culture to meet
their medical and health needs as they define them.

NOTES

1The a-uthor is Indebted to Prof. S. Zafar Hasan of the Department
of Sociology and Social Work of the Univeersity of Lucknow and Mr. Junaid
Ansari of the Jamia Rural Institute. New Delhi, for constructive comments
in the preparation of this manuscript. A deep sense of gratitude is also
expressed here for the guidance and suggest_?ons of Dr. D. K. Sen, now

Deputy Director, Anthropologlcal Suzc-fey of India, Calcutta and Dr. B. G.

Prasad, Professor of Social arnd Preventiv;e Medicine, K. G. Medical College,
Lucknow.

2The term "folk culture" L t his paper has been used to denote a
common way of life for some or all of the people of many villages, towns,
and cities within a given area, as defined by Foster (1953). The village
Chinaura, therefore, represents only a folk society.

in the villages studied by G, Morris Carstairs and McKim Marriot
respectively (In Health, Culture and Community, B. D. Paul (ed.), 1955)
and Harold Gourd (1957) no allopathic dispensaries existed prior to the
studies conducted.

4There is a strict code of conduct to be followed by a Bhagat. He

can not eat or drink wine, toddy, meat, onion, garlic, etc. He must abstain
from sexual intercourse from the time he becomes a Bhaat.  He must remain
"pure," i.e., he must take a bath after defecation or before offering
prayers. He usually wears a girdle of wooden beads around his neck.

8'1

82

BI21LIOGRAPHY

Ackerknecht, E. H.

1942 Primitive medicine and culture pattern, Bulletin of Historical

Medicine 11:503-521.

Fejos, P.

1959 Man, magic, and medicine. In Medicine and anthropology, lago

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