Urban views of folk medicine: The Isparta example

Modernization theory characterizes folk medicine practices as practices that are not the product of modern wisdom and are preferred in rural or urban life. However, the addition of folk medicine practices to the city today reveals that the arguments of this theory should be rethought. In this context, the aim of the study is to try to understand how folk medicine practices have come to light again in urban life; how they contribute to health services in the city and who benefit from folk medicine practices, how and for what purposes. In the research, a total of 27 folk physicians, 14 men and 13 women, were interviewed with a snowball sample using a qualitative method and phenomenology pattern. The data including the participants' experiences on folk medicine were analyzed in the MaxODA qualitative analysis data program and interpreted together with the literatüre. It was tried to understand in depth how the participants interviewed in the study started and continued the healing adventure in the city, where folk physicians tried to meet the health and disease needs of the city with hagi treatments, who received help from public physicians who received help from interviewed folk physicians, why and for what reasons, how they benefited from modern medical facilities while helping their clients, which treatment applications did not benefit from modern medicine. According to the data obtained from the research, despite the incredible technological developments in modern medicine in recent years, folk medicine practices are still functional in responding to the health needs of the people. Folk medicine applications, which offer a wide range of preventive and therapeutic services related to health and disease, also benefit from modern medical facilities. However, it is important in terms of public health and medicine to inspect the said practices through the Ministry of Health or related institutions, to provide trainings to the improvers who provide this service, and also after the prepared herbal ingredient products were examined and approved. Keywords: Health, Disease, Folk Medicine, Modern Medicine, City, Modernized Folk Medicine.