engleski

Anatomic votive offerings in Croatia

ANATOMIC VOTIVE OFFERINGS IN CROATIA Z. Dugac. Zagreb, Croatia. This work explores the votive gifts that people brought to sacred places, as a gift, in connection with various diseases in the last tree hundred years on the territory of Croatia. The main point explains symbolics of representation of body parts. The anatomic votives show the ancient customs and habits of the population dating from the pre-Christian heritage. They also unite the vernacular traditions, Christian religious conception and recent necessity of population. Votives stand between anthropology, medicine, history of art and culture. The field research has explored anatomic votive gifts from Croatia, offerings by people who were ill. It has established localities where this kind of votives were offered, including their expression, quantity and age. Throughout history, certain handicrafts were developed in connection with the making of the votive offerings. They were usually made of wax, wood, silver and gold. Some of them are valuable artistic objects with expressive figuration of human body. The customs of votive giving are rapidly disappearing. During the field research it was noticed that in the Adriatic area of Croatia people do not use the anatomical votives any more, while in the shrines of the continental Croatia, people still use the anatomic votive gifts. In the past votives were valuable artistic objects, recent votives have lost this quality.

votive gifts; ethnomedicine; Croatia

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