Comprehensions on Health and Diseases in a Black Sea Village

This paper discusses the disease patterns of the villagers who live in Village Akıncılar located in Araç county of Kastamonu, and their perception of diseases. The purpose of the paper is to examine the ways in which the villagers express diseases, and demonstrate their approach toward modern and folk medicine/traditional medicine, and to reveal the place of both medical practices in rural area life. According to ndings of the research although staying healthy is paid great signicance by the villagers the manner in which the villagers assess their diseases vary depending on the type of disease. Although the villagers usually try to solve their health problems through modern medicine, traditional practices including magic are deemed to be signicant part of medical pursuit today. Despite the villagers' account in which they pointed out not to have anything to do with magic in their daily lives, magic could be deemed the source of certain incidents and psychological problems, and could determine the framework of their life stories. This study draws attention to the fact that magic has psychological, cultural and social functions in the village, claiming that magic has a signicant function in explaining certain facts deemed as extraordinary in the village