engleski

Diseased as "Other" in the 18th Century Northern Dalmatia

The study investigates varieties of eco-historically (wars, scarcity of food, climatic instability) predetermined diseases in the 18th Century Northern Dalmatian villages, namely in the Ravni Kotari region. It further questions the perception of diseased individuals or communities and the identities of Diseased as "Others" or differentiated from the majority of the local rural inhabitants by their disease/es. The results indicate compassion, tolerance and wide acceptance of diseased members within the family or closer community on the one hand. On the other hand broader society or even more administrative, church or state authorities reacted with intolerance and repression, stigmatization and stereotypisation of diseased Morlaks. The demographic potential of diseased inhabitant, especially if not infected by endemic and long-lasting destructive diseases as malaria, was much higher than those of starved and constantly hungry local people. In spite of that their integraton to the broader community was highly dependent on the economic capacity of that community, which was most usually very low.

diseases, demography, identity, rural communities, Dalmatia, 18th Century

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