Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses the different aspects of such healing ritual techniques that present pain as if it was a material object. The phenomenon is studied from the viewpoint of the late 19th century Finno-Karelian healing tradition.

Paper long abstract:

In the late 19th century Finland and Karelia, traditional healing was a wide and diverse field, and there were many different kinds of semi-specialists in the field. Ritualistic healing was one aspect of the healing tradition, and this kind of healing included, for instance, incantations, bathing in the sauna, symbolic gestures, and different kinds of ointments. Healing rituals were usually performed by a ritual specialist, the tietäjä (“the one who knows” in Finnish and Karelian).

In this paper, I concentrate on the ritual techniques that were performed to reduce and treat pain. Different ritual techniques aimed to provide a meaningful and understandable conception of pain for the patient. Quite often, these techniques included some kind of “materialization” of pain, i.e., treating pain as if it was a material object. For instance, pain could be symbolically removed from the patient and bound in a tree. The ritual incantations supported the idea about material pain by presenting it as something that could be collected and stored by a mythic Lass of Pain (Kiputyttö or Kivutar).

This paper discusses the different aspects of this kind of healing ritual techniques. In these healing performances, the ritual techniques reflect both empiric experiences and traditional knowledge which includes mythic knowledge as well. I discuss how this kind of techniques could support the healing process, for instance by activating the placebo effect, and what kinds of meanings such techniques provide for the general understanding of pain in this socio-cultural context.