Grey Zone Healers and the COVID-19 Pandemic in Chechnya, Russia

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Abstract

The Chechen authorities’ focus upon population health is enacted both through the principles of Islamic medicine and approved biomedical practices. Any healing practices beyond these domains are met with deep suspicion. Practitioners of unofficial complementary and alternative medicine healers may abruptly find themselves regarded as enemies of the state. In light of this precarious circumstance, it becomes pertinent to inquire: How do these healers employ their daily tactics to negotiate the intricate power dynamics between the formidable state apparatus and the established biomedical order? Drawing from our meticulous fieldwork conducted in the year 2021, we investigated the intricate tactics employed by unofficial healers in the Chechen medical landscape during COVID-19. Our research centred on discerning the nuanced tactics aimed at mitigating potential risks. We conclude that healers, having embodied tactics to creatively manoeuvre within the confines of the authoritarian state, perceived the challenges posed by COVID-19 as merely another, often inconsequential, obstacle in their enduring struggle.

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Most cited references 27

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Michel de Certeau considers the uses to which social representation and modes of social behavior are put by individuals and groups, describing the tactics available to the common man for reclaiming his own autonomy from the all-pervasive forces of commerce, politics, and culture. In exploring the public meaning of ingeniously defended private meanings, de Certeau draws brilliantly on an immense theoretical literature in analytic philosophy, linguistics, sociology, semiology, and anthropology--to speak of an apposite use of imaginative literature.

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Across contemporary Africa, pluralistic medical fields are becoming increasingly complex, giving rise to newly emerging constellations of healing practices and a vast array of therapeutic possibilities. We present portraits of four 'traditional' healers in southern Ghana who selectively adapt, adopt, and modify elements of biomedical, 'local,' and 'exotic' healing practices in eclectic and creative ways, positioning themselves strategically in a highly pluralistic, contested, and globalized medical arena. Their practices are informed by 'traditional' knowledge, passed down through families and acquired through spiritually directed dreams, but also from medical textbooks, Google searches, 'scientific' experimentation, and interactions with the biomedical sector. The healers make use of modern information and communication technologies to increase their geographical reach, and respond to the opportunities and risks of an increasingly global but strongly differentiated therapeutic market. However, while apparently transgressing therapeutic boundaries, they are simultaneously drawing on a discourse of stabilizing and straddling those boundaries to legitimize their practices.

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Following its climax in the 8th century under the Abbasids of Baghdad, the Arab world entered a prolonged period of division and decadence. "Western" medicine was introduced in the 19th century with the support of the general population. The historical participation of Arabs in the elaboration of that "Western" biomedical model and its apparently consensual re-introduction into the Arab world diffused any sense of cognitive alienation vis-à-vis practices promoted initially by non-Arab doctors. In the late 1960s, Islamist thinkers started proposing "Islamic medicine" as an alternative to the encroachment of the "Western" biomedical model within Arab and Muslim nations. In Islamic medicine, disease is attributed to lack of attention to the spiritual dimension of human beings, yet intermediate causal pathways are not provided. Alongside "orthodox" concepts, Islamic medicine promotes some herbal remedies, in addition to faith-healing through prayer and the recitation of holy verses. While most of those practices may be beneficial, they may cause some harm to patients if they entail delaying or denying timely recourse to "orthodox" medical care. There are currently no Islamic medicine training programs in any Arab country, and Islamic medicine has not emerged as a comprehensive health alternative comparable to other non-Western health models.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Iwa Kołodziejska:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1590-1760

iu.kolodziejska@uw.edu.pl

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): J Relig Health

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): J Relig Health

Title: Journal of Religion and Health

Publisher: Springer US (New York )

ISSN (Print): 0022-4197

ISSN (Electronic): 1573-6571

Publication date (Electronic): 9 April 2024

Publication date PMC-release: 9 April 2024

Publication date (Print): 2024

Volume: 63

Issue: 5

Pages: 4024-4046

Affiliations

Faculty of Culture and Arts, Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Warsaw, ( https://ror.org/039bjqg32) ul. Żurawia 4, 00-503 Warsaw, Poland

Author information

Iwa Kołodziejska http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1590-1760

Article

Publisher ID: 2041

DOI: 10.1007/s10943-024-02041-4

PMC ID: 11502574

PubMed ID: 38592599

SO-VID: 7cc1a7f6-ab86-42ed-ac97-8d899947f3fb

License:

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

History

Date accepted : 4 November 2023

Funding

Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100004281, Narodowe Centrum Nauki;

Award ID: 2020/37/B/HS3/02541

Award Recipient : Iwona Kaliszewska

Custom metadata

ScienceOpen disciplines: Sociology

Keywords: cam healers,tactics,covid-19,chechnya,north caucasus

Data availability:

ScienceOpen disciplines: Sociology

Keywords: cam healers, tactics, covid-19, chechnya, north caucasus

Grey Zone Healers and the COVID-19 Pandemic in Chechnya, Russia

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