A Study About The Folk Medicine Practices On Gaziantep Barak Turkmens

Human beings have always been able to left standing on their struggle against nature by producing knowledge. That knowledge accumilaton which appeared based on the experience, have been carried to next generations with traditional knowledge transfer systems at periods when there were no recording systems such as text. The folk medicine practices are the kind of that traditional knowledge systems. The folk medicine practices and belifes are culture elements of the folk whose historical depth is the oldest. Since the earliest times, the human have produced folk medicine practices in order to stay healthy against the diseases and live longer. Those traditional knowledges have reached to nowadays. The folk medicine practices are based on the drugs which are obtained from various mixtures obtained from plants and the use of the supernatural powers. As with all traditional information systems produced from needs, the folk medicine practices remain in existence because it is partially responsive to the needs of today's people. These beliefs and practices have become more visible and known today by the spread of new communication technologies. Today, these traditional treatment methods are also on the agenda of modern medical centers. In this article, folk medicine practices compiled from Gaziantep Barak Turkmens have been examined. In the historical process, the Baraks, which are a nomadic Turkmen community, have been inhabited by the Ottoman state in the region that remains on the Syrian border today. Barak Turkmens have kept their verbal memories well because of the difficult historical process they lived and the rural region where they are located. An important part of the practices of folk medicine, which exists in the Turkish Cultural geography, has been also established among the Barak Turkmens