Traditional Obstetrics, Puerperal Rites and Child Nursing among Mongolian People (by the Materials of Medical and Sanitary Expeditions of the People’s Commissariat of Health of the RSFSR)
The research objectives are as follows: to analyze Mongolian people’s puerperal rites and nursing traditions described by Soviet physicians at the beginning of the XX century, to evaluate Mongolian obstetric practices from a medical viewpoint, to identify their sacral meaning in traditional Mongolian culture. Scientific originality of the study involves a comprehensive analysis of Mongolian obstetric practices described by the participants of two medical and sanitary expeditions of the People’s Commissariat of Health of the RSFSR. As a result, it is proved that Mongolian obstetric practices were based on magic rites and healing rituals used in popular and Tibetan-Mongolian medicines. Many of these rites appear to be rational under conditions of a nomadic lifestyle.