Healing practices between tradition and modernity

Traditionality has long been perceived as the opposite of modernity and it has been overshadowed in areas where modernity has spread. However, many traditional healing practices have been carried on from ancient times to the present. Recent studies show that traditionality and modernity, on the one hand, have opposite contents, on the other hand, they can cover and influence each other due to their changing features every day. The forms of expression and invention in a cultural environment where modernity is more dominant of the healing practices, which are claimed to be based on traditional methods, are the subject of this research. The question of how practitioners' expressions reflect the relationship of these methods with modernity and tradition directs the research here. Due to the diversity of healing practices in Turkey, there was a need to limit the research areas. For this reason, three practices including the hand-touch method, which has been used as a healing tool since ancient times, have been selected. These are: massage, Mikusano Mitakara and Reiki. As a result of the descriptive analysis of the expressions in the research areas, it is understood that the practitioners transfer and maintain the practices by positioning the healing practices and themselves in various contexts between modernity and tradition.