Journal of Regional Section of Serbian Medical Association in Zajecar
Year 2005     Volumen 30     Number 1
Home ] Gore/Up ]<<< ] >>> ]
UDK 39:64(497.11)
UDK 613.4/.5(497.11-22)(091)
ISSN 0350-2899, 30(2005) 1 p. 41-45
   
History of Medicine and Health Culture

Traditional rural household in hygiene function

Miloš R. Matić
Etnografski muzej u Beogradu

 
 

 

 
  Summary: The level of hygiene in rural areas is generally believed to be significantly low. There have been many examples in literature describing bad hygienic conditions of our peasantry, not only of long time ago, but also of today in some places. Hygienic conditions were judged to be low because they were considered from the point of view of already formed conscience of city dwellers but, for the purpose of objectivity, were they really so bad? We cannot say with certainty that our traditional peasantry used to fully discard the idea of hygiene of the body and close surrounding, but rather discuss various factors that brought about this negligence. Hygienic conditions in traditional rural areas, which at the same time reflect the conscience of inhabitants and their perception of a correlation between hygiene and health (or disease), can be reconstructed on the basis of the available literature sources and household goods used for the purpose of hygiene. For this reason the study is my attempt to represent traditional rural household goods used for hygiene in order to try and illustrate how a traditional peasant used to understand the concept of hygiene.
Key words: hygiene, rural, tradition, household goods, body, clothes, food, habitat

Note: full text in Serbian
Napomena: kompletan tekst rada na srpskom jeziku
 
     
  Corresponding Address:
Miloš R. Matić
Etnografski muzej
Studentski trg 13, 11000 Beograd
011 328 18 88; 064 1835456
e-mail: svarog@beotel.net
 
     
  Paper received: 07.04.2004.
Paper accepted: 03.03.2005.
Published online: 30.04.2005.
 
Home ] Gore/Up ]<<< ] >>> ]
Infotrend Crea(c)tive Design Revised: 20 May 2009