INTRODUCTION:

Every society has their irrespective ethnicity, habitations and traditional practices. though today is the time we can see tremendous improvement in our society and tribal community is also not untouched with that. But still there are several tribal communities in India commonly known as particularly vulnerable tribal group are basically not directly connected with the modern society. these kinds of tribal communities basically perform their traditional practices because their technology is primitive. though government has taken several initiatives to improve their health status and facilitated them with modern medical services, instead of that Hill Korwa people are still opted for traditional way of healing. Hill Korwa tribe is primitive tribal group so that the influence of their culture is still constant in their traditional belief and indigenous knowledge. Hill Korwa is the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group of the Chhattisgarh state of India. Their natural habitats are found in Jashpur, Balrampur, Sarguja and Korba districts of the state. on the basis of censes 2011 report, there are total 37195 Hill Korwa tribes are residing in the state in 9046 households (Hand book of Tribal Welfare Dept. Govt. of C.G.). Hill Korwa tribe are the primitive tribal group so they can show various characteristics such as first, declining population, second, primitive technology, third, very low level of literacy and fourth subsistence level of economy (Ministry of Tribal Affairs), as mentioned in the article 342 of Indian constitution.

the traditional way of belief and healing of diseases are generally associated with the way the people diagnosed their illness which is called Ethos in sociological term and choose their healer according to their illnesses is called as Edos in sociological term. When an illness occurred among them, they try to understand in their own way and on the basis of their beliefs they distributed illness to be caused by supernatural power or not. so we can say that all these beliefs and understandings about the way they explain their health is interlinked with their ethnic culture which Krober termed as Ethos and Edos. The beliefs and interpretations are different about illness and it guided through particular groups culture. E.B. Tylor (1871) definition on culture could be recollect where he defines culture as ‘That complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of the society’. Thus culture teaches people how they can live within them and with other culture as well as it helps to distinguish between illnesses caused by supernatural power or by other reasons. According to Allan Young (1976), “The layman willingness to defer to the understanding of the specialists is possible only in societies where a significant amount of medical knowledge relating to serious sickness can be called esoteric (that is, the secret or privileged understanding of special people), and where the owners of esoteric knowledge are able to demonstrate their uncommon medical powers”. Thus, people choose between various health care and treatment process on the basis of how their culture defines and explains that particular illness. It is our immense pleasure to inform that Indian Council of Social Science Research(ICSSR) has sanctioned Minor Research Project jointly for Dr. Rashmi Kujur and Dr. Sanjay Kumar Singh, the title of Project is “An Empirical Study About The Impact Of COVID-19 Pandemic On Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group Hill Korwa Of Chhattisgarh Sate”.we express our deep sense of gratitude to ICSSR, New Delhi.

Concept of Health

Generally it was observed that the way of medical treatment mostly depending upon the beliefs of the community. What they believe about the health and disease. In many tribal communities it was found that they connect health and diseases with super natural powers. Talcott Parson in its book named The Social System discussed about the medical practices and beliefs of tribal community and mentioned that In the most general terms medical practice may be said to be oriented to coping with disturbances to the health of the individual with illness or sickness. Traditionally the principal emphasis has been on Treatment or therapy that is on dealing with cases which have already developed a pathological state, and attempting to restore them to health or normality. recently there has been increasing emphasis on preventive medicine that is, controlling the conditions which produce illness.

A little reflection will show immediately that the problem of health is intimately involved in the functional prerequisites of the social system as defined above. Certainly by almost any definition health is included in the functional needs of the individual member of the society. So that from the point of view of functioning of the social system, too low a general level of health , too high and incidence of illness, is dysfunctional. While discussing about the non-literate societies Talcott Parson stated that-

The comparative evidence is overwhelming that illness even a very large part of what to us is obviously somatic illness, has been interpreted in supernatural terms and magical treatment has been considered to be the appropriate method of coping with it. In no literate societies there is an element of empirical lore which may be regarded as proto- scientific with respect to the treatment of fractures for instance but the prominence of magic in this field is over whelming great. Illness may be viewed as a type of deviance subject to social control according to Parson, he points out that a high incidence of illness is dysfunctional for a social system. Therefore, society has a functional interest to minimize illness, while talking about the illiterate society Parsons theory reveals that their way of social control regarding dysfunction due to illness is depended upon supernatural powers and magical practices. (Rashmi Kujur, 2018)

Health is a common term in most communities. Mostly, all communities have their different concepts about health. Commonly health is conceived as “absence of disease.”While the definition about health is different according to W.H.O. and also widely accepted, The World Health Organization says that health is “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well being and not merely an absence of disease or infirmity.” In recent years, this statement has been amplified to include the ability to lead a “socially and economically productive life.”

Concept of Ethos and Edos

Scheduled tribes are the people who are living in isolated areas such as near the forest, rivers, hills and waterfalls and they were called as Nature's son and Worshipers. Basically tribal community peoples have been invented many physical and non physical technologies for their survival and as time passes some of these technologies become their part of life or we can say that it becomes their life style. And then after a long time people of tribal community increases their faith upon their traditions and life style actions and it become a part of their culture. Culture is simply a learned behavior. There are various intellectuals who explained about the types of culture and also mentioned its qualities in this perspective. Famous anthropologist Redcliff Brown and Malinowski explains a culture as a tool which helps people to fulfill their needs. Kroeber discussed about the two parts of culture one is Edios and the other is Ethos. Eidos is an ideal which helps to understand various incidents held in life and it provides philosophical view to understand various incidents of life. For an example if we talk about Bharia Tribe of the Chindwada District),They basicaly live in Patalkot and they explained about their origin and reason for living in this way as according to their own way. They feel honored by explaining in such a way. Their belief and pattern of their explanation is called Eidos.

Tribal communities of our country represent their different stories about their origin. Some tribes believe that they were originated by supernatural power, some thought their origin is from various animals and other natural things. While some believe that Kings of various kingdoms are their ancestors. Tribes also believe about their life style and cultural elements that for an example one tribe believes that a particular tree is the host of their ancestor’s spirit so that they have an idea in their mind that they must have to protect the tree so that the tree in return protects them too. They generally worship such tree and draw its symbol on body as a tattoo and also they may be paste or draw paintings of that particular tree which they believe that it is their ancestor, also they wear clothes symbolically resembling their ancestor’s spirit. All these kinds of activities and belief of tribal community upon such natural things develop the origin of an institution called Totem.

So that we can say that Eidos is a philosophical view of tribal culture which is found to be submerged in every activities of their lives.In short we can say that Eidos explains about thinking’s, views and behavior of particular tribal community. But Ethos is the physical visualization of all works of daily life style of tribal community which was reflected through the inner factor called Edos. The believing, thinking and views about any activity among tribal community is Edos and its reflection as visualized physical activity in daily life is an Ethos. Both are the compensations for each other so that they can compared by the two sides of river, as river makes its two sides and after formation it decides the direction of flow of river. Just like that an Edos makes path for Ethos as Ethos is a physical visualization of activities which are generally inspired Edos. In this paper the objectives is to find out the Ethos and Edos factors of Hill Korwa tribal community during their treatment process of various diseases. What is the Hill Korwa communities Edos for health, disease and treatment and its reflection in their activities as Ethos.

Hill Korwa tribe also believe as shown in the Talcott Parsons theory of Social System about health that all illiterate socities are beleving that diseases are caused by super natural powers. The relation between disease and super natural power is an edos factors of Hill Korwa tibe. While the treatment process by their local healer called ‘Dewaire’ is Ethos. Generally they believe that if the disease came upon them by supernatural elements or by witch craft or by black magic so the treatment process should also be done. Governemnt is trying to reach medical facilities to them so that CHC (Community Health Centers) are established in surroundings near to the Hill Korwa habitation. Also ANM (Auxiliary Nurse Midwifery) is scheduled to go for field visits to aware Korwa people about helath, vaccination, diseases and for treatment purposes. Instead of that Korwa people generally prefer ‘Dewaire’ the local healer of their community for treatment of various diseases. All these happens because of the strong belief of them about their culture, that they believe the diseases came upon them because of the super natural power, In this paper we will discuss about the Cultural factors of treatment and healing process of disease among Hill Korwa Community.

OBJECTIVES:

The main objective is to explore on the existing traditional health beliefs and practices and the factors of Ethos and Edos which affect it and found among the Hill Korwa tribe. It will also find the enlighten factors of Ethos and Edos of Hill Korwa tribe’s life. It will further find out Ethos and Edos factors in Healing and Treatment Process of Hill Korwa People.

METHODOLOGY:

As according to the objectives of this study the research requires doing an in-depth interview on the concept and experiences of the people regarding health and how they are still believing on their indigenous health care practices.14 villages from Bagicha and Kunkuri blocks of Jashpur district has been selected through lottery method of simple random sampling. An interview and case study is conducted among Hill Korwa community and participatory observation is also done to witness the way the healers used in carrying out their treatment processes in order to see the satisfaction of the people. Villages which have been taken as sampled village are Gamharia, Gutkiya, Songeresa, Ratba, Chikhlapani, Kardana, Pattakaela, Sarabkombo, Remney, Sulesa, Sutri, Baghdol, Barjudih and Kudmura.

Enlighten factors of Ethos and Edos of Hill Korwa Tribe’s Life.

Hill Korwa tribe understands their daily life process according to their traditional knowledge which Krobers gives termed as Edos. Following are few Edos factors found among Hill Korwa; If a crow is making sound near their houses, they correlate it with trouble, pain or sudden death is coming near to them. The sound of crow is a symbol for them to get prepared for any kind of trouble. If lizard or squirrel passes through their way from left to right, it indicates that some trouble is coming and if these animals passes their way by right to left it indicates joy is coming. So as an precautionary instead of stepping their foot first they throw a piece of stone on their way than they step again on their way. If butterflies are flying in large numbers in the direction from east to west, it indicates that in 4 to 6 days there should be rain heavily. So they prepare themselves according to it.

Generally it is found that most of the Hill Korwa families are family of procreation. So that each newly married couple moves into new house and they built separate room for delivery purpose it is called ‘Kumba ’in their local term. (Kujur,2014) in its study also mentioned about the ‘Kumba’ that each Hill Korwa household built a separate place for delivery purpose and women is directed to spend time till she get purified. After purification rituals done she is allowed to enter from the main door of the house. Going to the market is one of the routine activities of their lifestyle, generally they will go to the market with their whole family and when they got reached to the market they will meet with their relatives. So going to the market with whole family is a kind of occasion for them its shows Ethos factor among this community. Thus Hill Korwa people use their Ethos for their daily routine activity which reflects in their visual action called Edos.

Ethos and Edos factors in Healing and Treatment Process of Hill Korwa People

The Hill Korwa tribes are deeply bounded with their traditional beliefs and culture and still they are not aware about their health and modern medical system, although Government has initiated several planning's and programs for improvement of their health status but instead of that they still believing to take treatment by their traditional healers. previously we have discussed about the theory of Social System introduced by Talcott Parson enlighten that the people belonging to illiterate communities such as Hill Korwa or primitive tribes they connect illness with super natural power or evil eye and they believe that their treatment will be done only by their local healers not by the health workers.

Healers of the Hill Korwa tribe diagnosed the patient by feeling his or her pulse and accordingly announced the reason of illness to be natural or supernatural by the pulse movement. Similar results also found in Kuki Tribe of the Manipur state of India that as local healer of Hill Korwa community diagnosed disease by Pulse movement, Haokip Nemneiva (2014).The Ethos and Edos factors found among Hill Korwa is that They strongly believe that fever, headache and stomach etc. are caused by the evil spirit or by devil power, and the treatment for their disease they generally prefer Dewaire the local healer of their community. Belief bout the cause of disease is Ethos and preference of treatment by local healer is Edos factor of Hill Korwa culture regarding their health. During the treatment process Hill Korwa people bring Alcohol beverage termed as Hadiya (fermented rice alcoholic liquor) and Desi Murga (Non hybrid chicken) to Dewaire as fees for treatment purpose. It was observed during the study that Dewaire generaly perform treatment during the early morning or evening instead of night because they strongly belief that during the night devil spirit interrupt the treatment process so they perform it in sunlight. So believing about the presents of devil spirit at night is Ethos and performing treatment at day time is Edos.

‘Dewaire’ is the man who is the member of local Hill Korwa community generally living in their own village and if not they will go to the nearest village where the local healer is living. It was also noticed that the local healer came himself for treatment to their homes. As Hill Korwa people are basically living in forest regions and there is generally a problem of snake bite found among them, in this case the community people prefer treatment from their local healer instead of going to hospital. They submerged victim of lightning in cow dung.

CONCLUSION:

The research work on Importance of Ethos and Edos in Health care system among Hill Korwa Tribe shows that traditional belief and indigenous knowledge are still affecting Hill Korwa people health care system, their health and treatment of illness is enlighten through two cultural factors called Ethos and Edos. It can also be concluded that though medical science is progressing and government also taking many health care initiatives for their betterment, instead of that the Hill Korwa people still like to go for treatment in their indigenous way of understanding and practices. It can also be concluded that health is totally interlinked with a person’s belief and thinking and also with their culture and community. The reason for illness and its diagnosis are decide by their own knowledge depending upon their beliefs and also they select healer according to their own choices. It was also observed that the traditional healers also play an important role in the health care system of the Hill Korwa. Traditional healer (‘Dewaire’) is the one who satisfied the people during illnesses.

REFERENCES:

1. Hand Book of Tribal Welfare Department Government of Chhattisgarh State 2011. p1-26.

2. Haokip Nemneiva (2014): Traditional Health Beliefs, Practices and Healers among the Kuki Tribe of Manipur, European Academic Research, Vol. II, Issue 6/ September2014, PP.8149-8165

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Received on 16.03.2022 Modified on 04.05.2022

Res. J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 2022;13(2):91-95.

DOI: 10.52711/2321-5828.2022.00015