D.Litt. et Phil. (Folklore) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Psychology University of Zululand, 1984. / As indigenous healers are so important to the health of many not only in South Africa but also throughout the world, a closer, scientific look at their practices is needed. Again, there is a tendency of the majority of South Africans (especially the Blacks) to consult both western oriented mental health> services and indigenous healers. Various prominent mental health professionals in South Africa have appealed that greater recognition be given to and greater use made of the skills of indigenous healers in the treatment of persons who could benefit from the services- It is for these reasons that this research on indigenous healing was undertaken. The purpose of this research was to investigate diagnostic and treat¬ment methods used by a random sample of indigenous healers from the rural Mtunzini district in Kwa-Zulu, and to ascertain whether there is any consistency (inter-practitioner) in their diagnostic and treatment methods. Twelve practitioners were each invited by a researcher and a confederate with a problem requiring treatment. Diagnostic and treatment procedures were tape recorded. Standardized data regarding diagnosis, cause symptomatology, treatment and prognosis, including practitioners' biographical data was collected. In order to ascertain inter-practitioner consistency, practitioners were asked to rank order six diagnosis and six treatment procedures ascertained to be the most frequently occuring among all twelve practitioners. The results emphasized the three distinct basic categories of Zulu indigenous practitioners viz. doctors (izinyanga), diviners (jzangoma) and faith healers (abathantfazi). Of these categories, the diviner deserve special mention as the results consistently portrayed her as a superior specialist e.g. an elderly, educated, female preserver and provider of traditional Zulu culture. Diagnostic and treatment procedures used by the practitioners were found to be based on dualistic levels viz. natural and supernatural. As suggested by previous studies and also supported in this research, more integration of Western and African oriented mental health subsystems was recommended.

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This project focuses on the cultural fault lines that converged in the years between 1890 and 1920 to create a dynamic sense of folk regional identity among the people of western Massachusetts' Sawmill Valley. The key to the study is its thematic attention to the often conflicting uses of place and landscape within the oral traditions that I have collected from local residents over the last two years. In comparison to the urban and suburban sprawl which lie within less than a half hour's drive of it, the Sawmill Valley now appears to be a last vestige of the old, pastoral New England out of which many American myths of consensus have been made; this dissertation is concerned with dismantling such appearances. Far from being secure vestiges of old Yankee stability or self-sufficiency, the Valley's folk traditions functioned during the turn-of-the-century period as highly self-conscious reactions to events which were occuring both within and just beyond the region's immediate borders. The gradual influx of an immigrant (primarily French Canadian) population into this already dynamic rural/industrial corridor during the period 1890-1920, as well as the Valley's growing dependence on the Connecticut Valley's market-economy, provides a suitably volatile focal point for the study, an appropriate moment of cultural re-definition and upheaval.

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Yes / Peatlands have often been represented in cultural material as being dangerous and inhospitable places, partly based on post-medieval influences, but also partly based on elements of folklore which emphasise the ‘other-worldly’ and liminal nature of these environments. Using Ilkley Moor, West Yorkshire, as a case study, the role of heritage, folklore and cultural media in guiding perceptions of the landscape is explored. Contemporary society is more diversified than historic situations, and our review indicates that perceptions of heritage landscapes reflect this complexity. The use of the peatland by different groups is explored, before addressing the interconnected roles of folklore and archaeology in past, present and future engagement with this landscape. / JP-ICH under Grant number AH/S006427/1.