Category Archives: Homeopathic

Love binding

Context:

B is one of my close friends and has connections and friendships with all kinds of people. Shes heard of many practices and stories from friends that have performed these practices themselves or through others. She heard of this practice through her cousin who had a friend that actually performed this.

The context of this piece was when we were talking about some superstitions we had heard of or practices and B mentioned her cousin had recently told her this one.

Text:

B: “Uh this one is a little gross like nasty kind of but hey, you asked. So my cousin told me that she has a friend who did this on her husband. She’s just weird like that but whatever. So its said that if a woman gives a man some of her blood, like her….period blood, then he’d be in love with her forever and not fall for anyone else. And that’s what my cousin said her friend did because he used to be such a flirt with all the girls but now he’s like a puppy on a leash.

Me: “Wait, the guy just willingly drank something like that?”

B: “I’m sure some guys are into weird stuff like that but nah my cousin’s friend was sneaky with it. She put her own period blood into some spaghetti she made for him. Her you know, stuff mixed in with the sauce so he couldn’t taste it. But apparently it worked for her because she says she feels like he’s bonded to her or something like that, I don’t know”

Analysis:

This interview really surprised me because I had never heard of something like this existing or even being done to a person.  This folk content also piqued my interest because I found it to be an example of Homeopathic magic. In this piece, the desired outcome is for the person receiving the blood to change their external temptations and become devoted to the giver of the blood. In order to do that, my informant’s cousin’s friend put their bodily fluid into an edible substance, which is supposed to symbolize the receiver’s connection to the giver. I think this could also possibly be contagious magic as the practice requires a physical secretion from the giver’s body in order for it to be completed

Egg Cleanings

Context:

M is a Mexican immigrant and mother of three. She has used folk medicine to cure some of the ailments of her children throughout the years. She learned the techniques from her mother and uses them on her children and grandchildren now.

The context of this piece was during a dinner when I asked if she knew any folk medicine methods and she knew of one that could be used on anyone.

Text:

M: “Muy bien, este método se puede utilizar en cualquier persona y se puede hacer por su cuenta o alguien más puede ayudarle. Pero tienes que agarrar un huevo y te tienes que persignar. Repítelo de tres a cinco veces mientras recitas un pasaje bíblico. Cuando hayas terminado, rompe el huevo en media taza de agua mezclada con sal. Lo que haya en la taza es la mala energía que tenías. Por lo general, después de poner el huevo en la taza se vería diferente de lo que sería un huevo normal sin cocinar. Si el huevo se ve blanco, como si estuviera algo cocido, entonces esa es la cantidad de mala energía que tienes.”

//Translation:

M: “Okay, this method can be used on anyone and can be done on your own or someone else can help you with it. But you have to grab an egg and make the sign of the cross on your chest. Repeat it three to five times while reciting a biblical passage. When you are done, break the egg into half a cup of water mixed with salt. Whatever is in the cup is the bad energy you had. Usually after you put the egg in the cup it would look different than a normal uncooked egg would. If the egg looks white, as if it is somewhat cooked, then that is the amount of bad energy it has.”

Analysis:

I really enjoyed having this interview with M and learning about this form of folk medicine. Before this interview, I had not heard of anything like this, so it was a nice learning experience to have. I thought it was interesting to hear about how this process is performed and the ingredients that go into it. Everyday objects that can be found in almost anyone’s home is used for this process which is why I was so surprised by how accessible and easy it is to perform. It was also interesting to hear how the bad energy is extracted and then transferred into something that is visible like the whites of the egg.

Yeet Hay

Background:

Informant (A) is a Chinese-American student at USC.

Main Piece:

A: It’s like, I don’t even know how to explain it well, it’s like, not hot and cold, but some food just have like a hotter energy or colder energy, it’s like all of this [gestures to her lunch], but that’s yeet hay, and it’s like if you eat too much of it you break out, and bad things happen to you and you need to have a balance in your diet and literally my mom would be so horrified by how I eat.

I: Was there anything in particular that you remember? Like just any food that you remember that maybe your mom was like, oh—

A: Just like, in general, like I would be like, “Parents, I have a medical something” or “Please use Western medicine” and they’d be like, “No, you can fix your issue by not eating chips” like eat a fruit, the balance or whatever.

Context:

This conversation was recorded in-person over lunch. The concept of yeet hay was brought up as my informant noted her lunch wouldn’t be conducive with yeet hay.

Analysis:

Yeet hay (熱氣, zheng qi, lit. “hot air”) is a Chinese medicinal concept in relation to food and the body, drawing on ideas of homeopathic magic. As explained by my informant, eating foods with a certain type of energy would either raise or cool down the body’s internal energy/temperature, which in turn affects biological functions and conditions. The longstanding tradition of Chinese medicine is most likely what drives belief in the idea, as opposed to Western medicine which has sprung up only in the last couple hundred years. Of course, in my informant’s case, yeet hay seems to also be applied as a method to get children to eat healthier by using such a traditional/ancient belief as a method of persuasion.

Hair Of the Dog

Background:

Informant is an Australian student who has lived in Australia for most of her life.

“I’d drink a beer the morning after. Y’know—hair of the dog, when you drink to cure a hangover?’

Context:

Informant and I were discussing the option of beer as a beverage at a restaurant. She mentioned she would want to order one sometime in the future.

Analysis:

“Hair of the dog” is a colloquial expression that is a folk remedy. As a colloquialism, it is completely separate from alcohol and drinking, therefore creating an in and out group of drinkers and non-drinkers who may not understand the usage of this phrase and thus potentially lessening any shame or judgment that may be given if admitting to drinking alcohol. As a folk remedy, this uses the logic of homeopathic magic—a desired result, which is relieving the side effects of consuming alcohol, is achieved through mimicking it, drinking alcohol. The actual proof of this belief may or may not exist, but since such a remedy is popular enough as alcohol is widely-consumed globally (and as hangovers don’t necessarily have actual cures), the belief in this remedy is able to continue.

Taviano’s curse

Background: Informant is a Mexican-American college student. He believes strongly in his superstitions and magical energies. This story takes place in Las Grutas Tolantongo in Mexico. It’s a village right outside of an area with hot springs. This happened when the informants grandmother was 7, so in the 1960s. 

Informant: There was this guy, his name was Taviano. They would come to give this woman bats to counteract a curse. So, Taviano would always come at night because that’s when they caught the bats, and my great-grandmother Josefina would always let Taviano sleep in their house, but Taviano would always sleep in the kitchen. And after a while they got suspicious like, “why would he always want to sleep in the kitchen?” And, turns out that when my grandmother went to a medium to kind of find out because– instead of going to the doctor’s– they don’t like the doctors, cause the doctors always try to– the scientific part. Like, over there it’s more spiritual, like they believe in more the spiritual world. So, they always go to mediums and those kind of things, yeah like mediums. So when the medium revealed to my grandmother why her daughter was sick, he mentioned that a guy who was your neighbor got her sick. So, Josefina guessed it was her neighbor because he was the only guy, but since he wasn’t there she didn’t know. So Taviano, even though they like don’t have pronouns, Taviano was still a guy, so suspicions went to Taviano. So then like, sleeping in the kitchen, what is he doing in the kitchen? So, um there was like uh, flame. There was one night where she had a flame in the kitchen, right. And, like, you know when dust kind of hits metal. Like dust particles are kind of hitting metal, the sound it makes, so she heard that in the middle of the night and she was like, “wait what’s going on”. And then she got up and she saw Taviano sitting in front of the oven with all this like, Carbon stuff and burning things and he had dead bones with him, and she was like “I got you!” And grabbed him by the ear asking “who told you to do this? Why are you doing this?” And they never found out why he was doing this but they found out that it was him who was doing the curse. 

Reflection: This story was so interesting because the informant talked me through the entire process of the creation of the curse. I loved seeing how they lighted up as they told the story, and how emotional they were. The part where the informant talks about mistrust of doctors told me a lot about their culture and community. Their community relies on folk medicine and ritualistic practices done by mediums rather than Western medicine, and it was evident in their account. I learned so much more about cultural differences and how they affect people’s problem-solving throughout the world.