Healing Powers of Curanderismo

Learn the Cleansing Rites and Limpias Espirituales of

Ancient Mesoamerican Shamans to Heal Your Body, Mind
and Soul

Pablo Serra

TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE TERRITORY
ARIDAMERICA
OASISAMERICA
MESOAMERICA
COMMON FEATURES IN THE CULTURES OF MESOAMERICA
MAYAN ZONE
GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION
WESTERN MEXICO
AN ADVENTURE
HISTORY OF CURANDERISMO
YUCATAN CURANDERISMO
HEALING SPECIALISTS
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TRADITIONAL THERAPISTS AND THE PRACTITIONERS OF
BIOMEDICINE
BACKGROUND OF THE CONCEPT OF ILLNESS
RELIGION AND RITUALITY IN TRADITIONAL MEDICINE
THE ROLE OF RITUAL AND RELIGION IN THERAPY
TRADITIONAL MEDICINE IN THE 21ST CENTURY
COLOMBIA
TREATMENTS, PROCEDURES AND MEDICINES
PURGES AND HELPS
OTHER PREPARATIONS

THE TERRITORY

T he groups that lived in what today is part of the national territory even
before the arrival of the Spaniards left diverse testimonies of their
presence. In the central and southern regions we find different types of
settlements, ranging from small villages or ceremonial centers, to large cities,
while in the north the vestiges are quite meager; almost always lithic objects
generally associated with animal remains that tell us about their main subsistence
activities: hunting, fishing or gathering; besides cave paintings and petroglyphs; on
the other hand, in some places of the region located on the limits of the current
states of Chihuahua and Sonora; Arizona and New Mexico in the south of the
United States, we find vestiges of constructions of permanent settlements with a
different character from those found in Mesoamerica.
During a long period of time, from approximately 30/25,000 years to
approximately 2500 B.C., the groups that settled in this vast territory basically
subsisted from hunting, fishing and gathering.
Around 2500 B.C., a differentiation between some groups and others began
because in some places agriculture was adopted and villages were founded per-
manent; while in others, the groups continued to maintain their ancient way of life
and did not adopt agriculture, so they continued to dedicate themselves to the same
activities of hunting, fishing and gathering. Thus, the hunter-gatherer groups
continued to roam the north of our current territory, while other groups in the
central and southern part established themselves in permanent locations and began
to depend on agriculture and began building villages, which meant their
sedentarization.
Gradually, three large cultural areas were formed, in which groups of different
levels developed, each one of them with a different character.
The company has its own characteristics and different traditions. These cultural
areas are known today as Mesoamerica, Arid America and Oasis America. The
area that has occupied the greatest attention of the specialists is Mesoamerica,
since in this one the groups that had greater development and more complexity
settled down. This situation has been due to the fact that in this area is where the
greatest number of material and documentary vestiges have been found and also
because almost all of these vestiges are monumental.
In this paper we will try to outline the general geographic characteristics of each of
these areas and try to specify the cultural features of the groups that occupied
them. We start with the less known areas: Arid America and Oasis America and
later on, we address in more detail the characteristics of the main Mesoamerican
cultures.
The areas of Aridamerica and Oasisamerica are treated in a general way, since our
main objective is the study of the Mesoamerican cultures, to which we pay more
attention and study in more detail, especially we will stop at the description of the
archaeological sites and the most relevant cultural features of each region or
Mesoamerican cultural area.
We have preferred to approach the cultural areas using a geographic criterion and
not strictly chronological, since we consider that it can be more didactic for the
learning of the students of tourism, to whom this text is directed, to study each one
of the cultural areas in which today Mesoamerica is divided for its study. In any
case, when approaching each Mesoamerican cultural sub-area, the treatment of
each culture in them has been chronological. First the cultures of the Formative
period are approached, then those of the Classic period and finally those of the
Post-Classic period. We will try to highlight the most distinctive characteristics of
each one of them.
Before beginning the study of the Mesoamerican sub-areas, we have made a brief
synthesis of the characteristics that define these cultures, according to the criteria
used by Paul Kirchhoff, the areas into which they are divided and a brief synthesis
of the characteristics of the cultural horizons into which Mesoamerican history has
been divided, as well as their geographical location.
We believe that it is very important for students of the degree in Tourism to know
in detail the cultural development of the peoples
The archaeological sites that are preserved in our territory today are an important
part of our cultural heritage and some of them are visited by thousands of people
annually, because they are points of both cultural and tourist interest.
On the other hand, it is necessary to emphasize that in recent years more
importance has been given to the development of what is called cultural tourism,
which tends to be linked not only to the promotion of historical and cultural
knowledge, but also to the conservation of the cultural heritage of our country.
This objective cannot be achieved while ignorance of our indigenous past prevails.
We will begin by geographically and chronologically locating the cultural areas in
which the pre-Hispanic cultures developed, highlighting some of their relevant
cultural characteristics. First Arid America and its cultural subareas; then Oasis
America and its sub areas and finally Mesoamerica and its corresponding sub
areas.

ARIDAMERICA

T he region known as Arid America is an extensive geographic area in

which we can find almost all types of ecosystems, from the coasts and
coast, plateaus, plains and deserts, to the high mountains of the sierras.1
The groups that inhabited this immense cultural area knew how to make the most
of the resources that nature offered them, both for their subsistence and for their
refuge. Thus, on the banks of rivers or lakes, even some people came to practice
agriculture in an incipient way, while in other less favorable areas, continued to
practice hunting, fishing and collecting wild plants and fruits.
Arid America included the peninsula of Baja California, large portions of the
current states of Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and northern
Tamaulipas; part of the states of Durango, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi,
Aguascalientes, northern Jalisco, Guanajuato and Queretaro.2 However, we know
that the area actually went beyond our current borders with the southwestern
United States and occupied a good part of this region.
This large area is flanked by our country's two main mountain ranges: the Sierra
Madre Occidental and the Sierra Madre Oriental, with a flat portion between the
two, the Altiplano Central, which is characterized by an arid climate, with scarce
vegetation, consisting of shrubs, agaves and cactus, since it is an area with little
rainfall. Part of the Baja California peninsula is also characterized by the absence
of rivers, lakes or water springs.
This enormous extension was inhabited by nomadic groups from very remote
times, which in the Post-Classic era were called generically with the name of
Chichimecas, a term that took a derogatory connotation and was synonymous with
barbarian, uneducated. In reality, the Chichimeca groups had different origins,
linguistic and ethnic affiliation, as well as local cultural variations.
Generally, the north of our current territory is identified with Arid America, a
cultural area that Paul Kirchhoff defined around 1954. After analyzing the
characteristics of the groups that inhabited the region, he divided it into nine
cultural areas: Central California, Southern California, Great Basin, Northwest
Arizona, Apacheria, Baja California, Sonora and Sinaloa Coast, Northern Mexico
and Southern Texas.
This enormous cultural area, which includes a large portion of the southwestern
United States and northern Mexico, was the setting where cultural traditions of
very diverse levels were developed. There were groups whose economy was based
on harvesting, hunting, there were fishermen and even gatherers who dedicated
themselves to cultivation in an incipient manner.
Kirchhoff analyzed the characteristics that each area presented and studied the
towns that were located in the different areas. The area of greatest interest to us is
undoubtedly the so-called Northern Mexico. We did, however, make a brief
description of each of the areas of Arid America.

OASISAMERICA
O asisamerica has been geographically located in what we now call the
southwestern United States and included a portion of northwestern
Mexico. In its period of maximum splendor the area occupied most of
Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, some regions of Colorado, Sonora, Chihuahua and
some areas of California, Baja California and Texas.
This enormous area presents a very uneven and diversified terrain; it has high
mountains like the Mogollon Mountain Range to the east, where the culture of the
same name developed, as well as the cracked soil that the anazasi stopped;
although in this region some rivers of scarce flow are located, like the San Juan,
the Colorado and the Grande, on whose margins numerous settlements emerged.
To the west, the landscape is rather flat, with rickety vegetation, characteristic of
arid areas, and was the location of the hohokam who knew how to skillfully
channel the water flows to reach their crops.
To the south, already in Mexican territory, the culture of Casas Grandes or
Paquimé developed in arid lands and great plains, extending through the foothills
and ravines of the Sierra Madre Occidental; the vegetation here is rickety and
water is scarce, limited to a few streams, pools and storm drains.
This cultural area began to take shape around 500 B.C.; Paul Kirchhoff gave it this
name because, in spite of being a semi-arid zone and having an extreme climate,
there are small oases in some regions that concentrated some of the large
populations, which allowed them to dedicate themselves to agriculture and
establish themselves permanently in sites that were growing in size and
complexity.
At this time, some villages of the Desert Culture or Paleo-Eastern Tradition that
already knew about agriculture, began to depend more and more
of it, until they adopted it totally as a way of life. The aridity of the area forced
these villages to build irrigation works, but they were not able to extend the
cultivation territory much. Anyway, hunting and gathering continued to be a very
important part of their economy, whose products were used to supplement their
diet.
It is very likely that the adoption of agriculture came to this area through the
expansion of Mesoamerican tradition. The same is thought to have happened in the
case of the emergence of pottery in this region. It is likely that the influence came
from Zacatecas and Durango.
The inhabitants of this area came to use complex agricultural techniques as
networks of channels have been discovered and also vestiges of the use of terraces,
which they probably also adopted in imitation of the Mesoamerican peoples.
From the sixth century A.D., relations between Oasisamerica and Mesoamerica
intensified, probably due to an increase in production and trade in both regions.
Surely the most frequent contacts were with the peoples of the so-called West of
Mexico, in the area located in the current states of Guanajuato, Michoacán, Jalisco
and Colima.
Although Paul Kirchhoff divided the region of Oasis America into 7 sub-regions,
at present only five are considered: Anasazi, Hohokam, Mogollón, Patoya,
Fremont. The Anasazi region (Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico) was
where the most complex societies developed. The outstanding sites of this area
were several, among them are Fair View, Big Juniper House, Badger House, Mug
House and Cliff Colorado. There is also Pueblo Bonito, which is a walled complex
that is composed of 650 rooms, arranged in five staggered levels.
In the Hohokam area, settlements such as Snacktown, Casa Gran- de, Red
Mountain, Roosevelt, Pueblo de los Muertos and Valshni Village stand out. The al-
deas were composed of semi-underground houses with an elongated floor plan.
This region was developed from 300 B.C. to 1450 A.D. At the arrival of the
Spaniards there were still some descendants of the Hohokam.
The Fremont area was occupied by groups influenced by different cultures such as
the Anasazi. Originally they were bison hunters who adopted pottery and
horticulture influenced by the Anasazi. They built semi-subterranean rooms made
of masonry. It begins to decline
Towards 950 and disappears in 1300 A.D. At the arrival of the Spaniards their
descendants were the Shoshone.
The Pataya area was a peripheral area of Oasis America. In spite of being located
in a mountainous area, the groups that lived in this zone were dedicated to
agriculture, elaborated ceramics and practiced the cremation of their dead. They
never formed permanent towns, since they were semi-nomadic. When they were
located in a seasonal place, they built jackals with perishable materials. These
villages disappeared between 1300 and 1400 A.D. In the 16th century their
descendants, the Yumans, were groups that were dedicated to cultivation and were
very warlike.
Finally, the Mogollón area covered the southeast of Arizona, the southwest of New
Mexico, the north of Chihuahua and the northeast of Sonora. This is a region of
mountains covered with pine forests. The cultures developed between 500 B.C.
and 1500 A.D. Among the important settlements of this area are: Grasshopper Ruiz
and Paquimé or Casas Grandes. At the arrival of the Spaniards, the opatas,
tarahumaras and cahítas inhabited this region and settled in ranches composed of
huts or occupied natural caves that were conditioned as housing.

MESOAMERICA

T he geographic area within which the high cultures of Mexico and Central
America developed was defined, delimited and characterized by Paul
Kirchhoff, in 1943 before the Mexican Anthropology Society.
After conducting a series of studies on the distribution of cultural elements in
prehispanic Mexico, Kirchhoff considered Mesoamerica as a region whose
inhabitants, both very old and relatively recent immigrants, were united by a
common history that confronted them, as a group, with other peoples of the
continent. Their migratory movements were almost always confined within
Mesoamerican geographic boundaries, once they entered them, until the arrival of
the Spaniards; these peoples shared a cultural tradition.
It should be noted that Kirchhoff's delimitation of the area in question was limited
to the 16th century, because there is abundant written information from that time,
from which it was possible to extract multiple data that allowed defining the
geographic, ethnic and cultural. In addition to the availability of many other data
that have provided the archaeological exploitations carried out in this area.
As for the geographical limits, Kirchhoff established that at the time of the initial
Hispanic-Indian contact, these were: to the north, the Sinaloa River on the Pacific,
and the Pánuco River on the Atlantic, united by a line that passes north of the
Lerma, Tula and Moctezuma Rivers; the cultural area extended southward through
the rest of the Mexican territory to the countries of Central America: Belize,
Guatemala, El Salvador and part of Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, as far as
the Gulf of Nicoya.
The people who developed in this area were farmers, having as a basic crop of corn
and became highly stratified peoples, were builders of ceremonial centers, some of
which came to constitute populous cities.

COMMON FEATURES IN THE CULTURES OF

MESOAMERICA
A s mentioned, to delimit the area of Mesoamerica as it was configured at
the beginning of the 16th century, Kirchhoff took into account numerous
cultural features, as well as linguistic aspects. Within the typically
Mesoamerican cultural ele ments, they have been classified according to the
diverse manifestations of the society, their context, their use, etc., in the following
way
Agriculture. The use of the coa or planting cane; the construction of chinampas in
the lacustrine zones; the use of the rubbing system in agriculture; the cultivation of
chia for drinks, to obtain oil from it and to give luster to the paintings; the
cultivation of maguey to obtain mead, syrup, pulque, paper and textiles; the
cultivation of cocoa, grinding of corn cooked with ashes or lime; beans, chili and
pumpkin.
Ornaments. Different ornaments were made and used, such as: bezotes, earrings,
nose rings, pectorals, necklaces, bracelets, which were made with different
materials, such as precious metals, clay, jade, obsidian, precious stones, etc.
Architecture. They were mainly built on scarce pyramidal bases as a base for
temples; floors and walls were covered with stove, frequently polychrome or
decorated with mural paintings; paved roads; courts for ball games in the form of
an I (the ritual and the civil); subway ovens; hanging bridges; steam baths. The
ceremonial buildings were generally oriented according to the cardinal points and
were placed around enormous open spaces.
Ceramics. Among the most common forms we find tripod glasses, plates and cups,
amphoras, cups with button supports, pouring cups, pots, boxes, incense and
diverse figurines. Different techniques and colors were used.
Warfare. As main weapons of war they used mud pellets for blowpipes, macanas,
shields and bucklers; swords of wood with leaves of peder- nal or obsidian in the
edges (macuáhuitl), pikes, trophies of head, shields interwoven with two handles,
atlatl, corseletes stewed of cotton (ichcahuipilli). They practiced the flowery wars
(xochiyaoyotl) to obtain victims to be sacrificed. There were military orders: tiger
knights and eagle rider knights.
Clothing. Among the most important pieces of their clothing were: sandals with
heel straps; cotton fabrics with interwoven feathers; fabrics decorated with rabbit
hair; huipiles, quechquémitl, máxtlatl or cap; turbans; tunics, capes, tufts, etc.
Writing. They developed diverse forms of writing, emphasizing hieroglyphic
writing; they elaborated painted and folded books in the form of a screen (codex),
in which they registered religious and ritual events; they also elaborated historical
annals and maps; they used numerical systems with numbers of relative value,
according to the position they occupied.
Cosmogony and cosmovision. Mesoamerican peoples shared many religious
beliefs, such as: concepts about the existence of several outer worlds; several
destructions and creations of the world; they believed in the existence of thirteen or
nine heavens, the earth and nine underworlds.
Religion and Ritual. Mesoamerican peoples shared a complex pan-theon of deities
presided over by a dual god or creative couple. In every village, fixed and movable
feasts were celebrated at the end of certain periods of time; they used to give
calendar names to persons. Corpses were washed, and people used to drink water
to wash their dead relatives; self-sacrifices were frequent: blood was extracted
from the tongue, ears, legs and sexual organs by means of a maguey thorn; and
people played the game of flying. They used the solar calendar of 365 days; the
divinatory calendar of 260 days; the cycle of 52 years; ritual use of paper and
rubber; 13 was considered a ritual number.
Technology. Among some of their instruments and tools, there were: basket-
weaver; rafts with pumpkin floats; burins; winches; metals; obsidian polish; plumb
bobs; projectile tips made of different materials; polishers; scrapers; waist loom;
copper pipes for piercing stones, and so on.
 MAYAN ZONE

A t the southern end of our current territory, in the lowlands of Mexico and
Central America, the Mayan culture developed. This people carried out
great works such as the construction of centers and cities, many of
which are located in the middle of tropical forests. During the Classic period they
developed a very complex system of writing that was unique among
Mesoamerican peoples. They invented the most accurate calendar in the world at
the time. They were excellent mathematicians and astronomers: they calculated the
cycles of solar and lunar eclipses and other astronomical events with amazing
accuracy; they were also very talented artists and architects.
The Mayan people preserved their historical chronicles in the form of sculpted
texts on altars, steles, lintels and other monuments. During the last thirty years,
notable progress has been made in the translation of this writing of the Mayan
inscriptions. Decipherment has now revealed names, dates, and deeds of some
rulers and other leaders over a period of about six hundred years.
The translation of some of the Mayan texts has changed the view that was recently
held of this people. The data recorded in the inscriptions,
as well as in the paintings, like those of Bonampak, show us that the Mayan
governors were not the peaceful priests described in the archaeological guides of
the first half of the 20th century. On the contrary, they show us military leaders
deeply involved in wars and conquests between royal dynasties and between
different centers of power during the Classic period.

GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION
T he area occupied by the ancient Maya covers approximately 325,000
km2. This area includes the current states of Yucatan, Campeche,
Quintana Roo, Tabasco, part of Chiapas, in the Mexican Republic; and
Guatemala, Belize, western Honduras and part of El Salvador, in Central America.
The Maya zone has been divided into at least three major natural areas:
1) To the south, the highlands of Chiapas, Guatemala and Honduras.
2) In the center, the jungle of the Petén and the basins of the rivers Usumacinta,
Grijalva and Motagua.
3) To the north, the semi-arid plains of the Yucatan.
The highlands comprise the highlands and coastal plains of Chiapas and
Guatemala. There we find mountainous regions of more than 1500 m of altitude.
The edge of the highlands encompasses a series of extinct volcanoes and their
steep slope falls into the Pacific coastal region. This was the region that saw the
birth of the great achievements of the Mayan civilization (the calendar, writing and
numbering), although these were also developed in the northern villages of the
Mayan zone.
The lowlands constitute a vast region that extends from the northern Yucatan to the
foothills of the Guatemalan mountains. The northern lowlands are very flat, with
low rainfall and sparse vegetation. The western part of the Yucatan peninsula is
composed of limestone soil that is extremely porous and lacks rivers, lakes or
surface ponds. Rainwater penetrates the soil by seepage and this causes the
creation of a subway river system. In some parts the cenotes emerge, due to the
faults of the calcareous layer, which are characteristic of this region. These natural
wells are the base of life in the area, and around them have been installed the
Mayan human groups since the most remote antiquity until today.
In the eastern part of the peninsula, more abundant rains fall and the region has
lakes, cenotes and large ponds, although there are no rivers either. The vegetation
is of medium height, although as one descends towards the south, towards the
Guatemalan Petén, the vegetation becomes more exuberant. In the southern zone,
there are numerous rivers that constitute important systems of communication.
This tropical forest was the cradle of the Mayan civilization. It is an apparently
quite inhospitable, rainy, warm and humid zone. One of the most important rivers
in this zone is the Usumacinta, on whose margins great sites were developed such
as Yaxchilán and Piedras Negras; in its secondary tributary streams are located
Palenque, Altar of Sacrifices and Ceibal. In the area there are also several lakes,
among which Lake Petén-Itza stands out, where the island of Tayasal is located
(today Flores, in Guatemala), which was the last Mayan redoubt to be conquered
by the Spanish at the end of the 17th century.
In Campeche and Tabasco the conditions are somewhat different. It is an enormous
coastal plain, characterized by deep, poorly drained soils and flooded areas. The
vegetation is a combination of forests and vast savannas. The banks of the Grijalva
River are alluvial lands, suitable for intensive agriculture, particularly for the
cultivation of cocoa. The winter rains are sufficient to allow two crops of corn a
year.

WESTERN MEXICO

he most confusing and least studied area of Mesoamerica is undoubtedly the one
known as Western Mexico. This region is divided into several sub-areas where
T diverse local cultures developed, making it a true puzzle, where only
some primary ideas begin to take shape and clarify the internal structure
of their cultural evolution. Although an overall structuring has been
attempted, we are still far from having established the common features to be able
to carry out a chronological-based study, which is why we follow a mixed
criterion, partly geo-graphic, partly chronological and partly ceramic.
Recent archaeological discoveries in the area have changed the idea that this region
was marginal to Mesoamerica. It was long thought, for example, that Western
cultures did not develop monumental architecture, which is one of the
characteristic features of Mesoamerica. Nothing had been found in the area other
than shooting tombs. However, in recent years archaeological sites of some
importance have been discovered, which show us that these towns were also built
as ceremonial centers, although of smaller dimensions than those that exist in other
Mesoamerican areas.
This area is made up of an enormous extension that covers almost the entirety of
the current states of Nayarit, Colima, Jalisco, Sinaloa and Michoacán; some
researchers also include portions of Guanajuato, Aguascalientes and Querétaro.
Others consider the entire state of Gue-rero to be in the West as well, but because
of its problematic archaeo-logicality, Guerrero is difficult to pigeonhole in existing
classification frameworks.
In this vast geographic space, the landscape is very varied: mountain ranges,
valleys and ravines, mountains and plateaus, rivers, lakes, marshes and swamps;
coasts and high plains; tropical forests and highland forests; pastures and cactus
groves, natural environments that follow one another in a continuous ride. In short,
rich lands and poor lands.
Since the natural niches of the West are so numerous and varied, it is logical that
diverse cultures have emerged in the different periods of Mesoamerican history.
Evidence of this diversity is given to us by the large number of indigenous
languages that were spoken at the time of the Conquest, and by the variety of
material remains found so far in archaeological research.
Cultural diversity is also fostered by the relationships between cultures, both
within the West itself and with other Mesoamerican areas, or with the more or less
nomadic groups of Northern Mexico, with whom it shares long borders, and by the
less clear relationship with the Southwest of the United States and with the cultures
of South America, which at the same time had some kind of contact with this
region.
It is worth mentioning here that the peculiar configuration of the West and its
geographical location gave it an important role as a corridor through which ideas
were spread to and from Mesoamerica and through which material goods such as
turquoise and metal moved, and through which some groups also moved in their
migrations, transforming their previous ways of life.
In general terms, the pattern of settlement in the West was different and without
large human concentrations that we could call a city in the strict sense. Man settled
together with the resources he needed, and formed political-social units that
controlled not very friendly territories. However, the population was abundant if
we consider the sum of all the smaller units.
Although few systematic archaeological works have been carried out in this region,
it is a fact that in the West the presence of mo- numeral works or architecture of
great size that implied a lot of labor, like the one in the Mayan zone and sites like
Teotihuacan and Monte Alban, is scarce.
The West stands out more in the production of works within the so-called minor
arts, for example, ceramics, metallurgy, plumary and lithic, also including hard
stone and shell ornaments. For this reason, the archaeology of the West is better
known to the general public for the pieces found in museums, than for the visits to
the archaeo-logical sites themselves, which are not as apparent, as those in other
places in Mesoamerica.
Some recent discoveries have been made in the western area. In addition to the
areas of Teuchitlan, Jalisco and the area called La Campana in Colima, there is an
area that is just beginning to be explored, located on the borders of Nayarit and
Sinaloa and whose development is located between the seventh and sixteenth
centuries. In addition, of the innumerable tombs that have been found in the region,
some still preserve part of the offerings placed in them.
With the exception of the case of the Purepecha, there were no real states in the
West, since their societies were organized more at the level of the chiefdoms.
As we mentioned at the beginning, until recently the West was considered more as
a marginal area, with a late cultural development, as a region that had received
more than it had given, the features found in it; they are from an area lacking its
own roots. This way of appreciating the situation was largely due to the existing
ignorance and because it was seen from a perspective that we could think of as
extremely centralist.
Current studies give us another panorama and show us that this re-gion has deep
and very ancient roots; we have findings that at least trace the human presence to
the lower Cenolithic, with grooved projectile tips from Sinaloa, as well as from the
Zacoalco basin and the Huichol zone in Jalisco.
Without precise dates, but possibly older, diverse artifacts are known: hooks,
needles, punches, etc., made with bones of extinct animals. The fossilized bones of
a good quantity of pleistocene animals are abundant in diverse localities and make
us patent the rich fauna with which the man coexisted in his preagricultural stage.
On the other hand, on the Western coast, shells are common, mounds formed by
thousands of calcareous covers of the bivalves that man extracted from marshes
and swamps for consumption; some of these date from before the Christian era, but
most are more recent and even from the colonial era, since historical sources tell
how Spanish ships were supplied with this product. The most pressing
conchero/pyramid due to its size in Mexico is known as El Calón at Marismas
Nacionales.
Approximately 12,000 years ago, in the region where these cultures would later
settle, there were mammoths, mastodons, llamas, horses, bison and large deer. In
the rivers and lakes, glyptodonts and large lizards abounded. In this habitat these
animals coexisted with the primitive hunter-gatherers.
Of the archaeological remains that are preserved in the area we have: the mam-
paros or mobile tents; a projectile tip of gray flint skillfully carved, collected in
Quaternary deposits, associated with the Pleistocene fauna, the Cañada de Marfil,
Guanajuato; a small hand axe of white gray flint, found in the Juchipila River,
Jalisco, as well as other objects.
Around 2000 B.C. a probable cultural penetration was made, probably coming
from the Gulf Coast that already had a developed cultural baggage, since there
were farmers, ceramists and stone carvers; proof of this are the testimonies they
left, such as statuettes, sculptures and basalt, serpentine and jade ornaments in
which human figures were represented, with feline features, characteristic of the
deities of the waters, of thunder and lightning.
Some authors also warn, certain Andean influence in the gravestones found in
Guerrero that seem to have influence of the Chavín culture, old culture of Peru, as
well as in the ceramics and the use of the terraces of cultivation. It is possible that
through the Barra de Zacatula groups of immigrants from South America have
arrived, which were able to establish themselves in Nayarit, and later populated
Jalisco, Michoacán and Guanajuato, extending laterally to Colima and some parts
of Guerrero and Zacatecas. This wave of immigrants would mix with the semi-
sedentary hunter-gatherers that inhabited the region.
These groups built some very peculiar tombs carved of tepetate, whose mortuary
rooms were reached by a narrow well, which in turn, has small tunnels through
which one or several chambers are penetrated where the remains of chiefs lie,
surrounded by multiple offerings, such as zoomorphic and anthropomorphic
statuettes, vessels, metates and other objects of clay and stone.
At the beginning of the first century of our era, the custom of constructing shaft
tombs and adjacent chambers was still preserved, with the offerings previously
described, which go from 1700 B.C. (tombs of El Opeño, near Jacona,
Michoacan) until 700 A.D. By this time certain cultural features appear that give a
special stamp to this Mesoamerican culture, as a result of the Teotihuacan
penetration, whose influence is manifested in the use of ceramics decorated with
inlayed colors, such as lacquers from Uruapan, Michoacan, called cloisonné, or,
the amphorae from Juquila, Michoacan that show pro- cessions of characters with
attire intimately related to the Teotihuacans.
The West has generally been studied having as a geo-graphic reference the current
states of the Mexican Republic that correspond to the zone, each one of which is
considered a cultural area, although ceramic studies give the possibility of talking
about specific cultures, such as Capacha, Chupícuaro and Aztatlán.

AN ADVENTURE

N ot long ago I traveled to Eagle Pass on the Texas-Mexico border with

Pablo Madrigal, a yerbero (herbalist) I have known and studied with for
the last several years. It is a three-hour drive more or less from San
Antonio where we both live and it is our habit to talk and tell stories along the way.
Our talks always contain a new lesson for me, another opportunity to learn about
plants as he sees them. Mr. Madrigal is an expert in these matters. For him, plants
are more than a way to treat an illness, they are the essence of life itself. He is
acknowledged by the community as a curandero, a healer, though he prefers the
title of yerbero.
San Antonio represents a gateway to the borderland region because of its proximity
to the frontera (150 miles) and because the city’s infrastructure facilitates the
movement of goods and individuals to and from the border area. Much has been
written on the border experience and how its residents are shaped by the circuitous
flow of commerce
What emerges is a regional culture which reflects the influences of two nations, the
U.S. and Mexico, an area of fluid space.
In my research, I examine the tradition of curanderismo and how it is part of the
negotiating process between cultures and what role curanderos play in the social
and cultural identity construction of the individuals who seek their help. My
background is in anthropology and I make use of theories from medical
anthropology, phenomenologyand ethnobotany in my research. This paper is
reflective of these bodies of work. There is first a discussion of the history of
curanderismo, then its structure, and its practice in San Antonio.
Ethnobotany is not an area of great academic familiarity but I find that it adds an
important aspect to my work. Different disciplines, ecology, biology, chemistry,
and anthropology examine the relationship people have with their natural
environment in order to understand food,medical, and health traditions as well as
elements of cultureconstruction. While these aspects are part of my work, I keep
Richard Ford’s description of ethnobotany uppermost in my mind, “Ethnobotany is
the study of direct interrelations between humans and plants” (Ford, 1994). There
is a wide body of literature in ethnobotany, much of it concerning the chemical
analysis and practical application of botanical materials by non-western peoples.
But the selection, use, and discussion of plants can also give us a way to
understand how all people think about plants that in turn demonstrate how the
world at large is viewed. The fact that medicinal plants are purchased from a
botanica or a supermarket instead of harvested directly by the people who use them
does not alter the significant place these materials hold in curanderismo.

HISTORY OF CURANDERISMO
T
hree summers ago, I had a car wreck. I never saw the other car, just brakes
screeching, a loud bang and then the relentless sound of my car horn.
Someone tugged me out of the slouched position I found myself in and
put a dirty bandana to my bloody nose. I was lucky in two ways, one it wasn’t a
serious accident and two, it happened in front of a shop owned by Angela, a
curandera with whom I work. The people who pulled me out of the car were folks
from the neighborhood; others, whom I had seen drift in and out of her shop, spoke
to the police on my behalf and the woman who called Angela from a neighbor’s
house, owns a business on the same block. Angela came flying down the sidewalk,
or so it seemed to me, looking more frightened than I felt.
My niece was phoned to take me home but before letting me go, Angela felt I
needed to be treated for susto. I was unsteady, my hands wouldn’t stop trembling.
She said I was turning amarilla, meaning my face was drained of blood and I
looked pale, a little yellow. Amarillo is also indicative of a form of susto, which
precipitates soul loss. Angela in this case thought I was in danger of my soul taking
flight and could possibly die. So into her shop we go, the neighbors trailing behind
us and the guys from the neighborhood admonishing me to be more careful. Ever
the anthropologist, I told my niece to retrieve the tape recorder from the wreckage
of my car for this was a true ethnographic moment and I would be remiss in not
recording every detail.
Holding an alum crystal, Angela passed her hand over my body three times,
repeating prayers and entreating her guardian saints to take care of me and help me
get over my shock. She perfumed my hair and speaking loudly in my right ear
called my spirit back to me, just in case.
I went home and rested, feeling a little better knowing someone was looking after
my soul. This ritual was repeated the next two days and each evening she and
Pablo would call and check on me. They recommended teas to calm my nerves and
bolstered my spirits withconsejos. I gave myself over to their expert advice and felt
secure in their care.
A curandera or curandero diagnosing a disruption in someone’s life as an illness is
a daily occurrence in Mexican and Mexican-American barrios. The ritual treatment
of the illness along with the involvement of relatives or neighbors as needed is an
integral part of the healing narrative. Sacred language, candles, incense, plants and
other material objects are part of this narrative. These objects are thought to
contain energy that the curandero can manipulate in order to effect a cure.
This idea of energy and its manipulation is at the foundation of curanderismo.
Curanderismo is a traditional medicine system found in Latin America and in the
U.S. and it is practiced by some segments of the Mexican and Mexican-American
population. Curanderismo has been viewed as a tradition that draws on many
influences. Its roots are in “the old and new worlds. When the Spanish
conquistadores arrived in the new world they brought with them the most advanced
medical knowledge of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries”
In the Americas there existed an effective medical and medico-botanical system at
the time of the conquest. The Codex Badianus of 1552 and the Florentine Codex
are early attempts by the Spanish to document Aztec botanical knowledge in a
Western fashion.
It is clear to us that the Aztecs at the time of conquest used a model for defining
illnesses and their cures, “An analysis of all the botanical fever remedies in The
Florentine Codex has shown that 70 percent contained chemicals known to do
what Aztec etiology required; that is, they were emically effective. Curanderismo
is a syncretic practice of existing indigenous medical and botanical knowledge
with religious, symbolic, ritual and medical practices brought by the conquering
Europeans. Through time elements of spiritualism have been added and European
botanical elements added as substitutes for original indigenous materials.
Certain plants are less commonly used in healing rituals as the Mexico-U.S. border
is approached. An example of this is pirul (Schinus molle L.) for mesquite
(Prosopis glandulosa), the former used in central and parts of northern Mexico but
mesquite takes its place in Texas. The evolution of curanderismo parallels the
process of change in the indigenous populations who were colonized by the
Spanish. The medical tradition that came to the Americas was changed by contact
with the people here, just as much as many of the native people themselves were
changed into a mestizo population.

YUCATAN CURANDERISMO

I n the traditional medicine of today's indigenous communities in the Yucatan,

several specialists put into practice knowledge and practices that preserve
deep Mayan cultural roots. Bone cutters, midwives, kneaders, herbalists and
healers (both men and women) attend to the physical and spiritual or magical-
religious sufferings of the indigenous population. For their part, the h-meno'ob are
the specialists who have the prerogative of carrying out the rites of an agricultural
nature, although they can also exercise several of the aforementioned specialties.
In their dialogue with supernatural beings, the h-meno'ob try to obtain or restore
the goodness of the gods towards men, asking for the protection of the cornfield,
beneficial rains and good harvests, as well as the health of the owner of the land
and his family. Today, his job as a therapist, which is in sum a socializing and
community cohesion work, faces the onslaught of modern allopathic and
laboratory medicine, effective in many cases, but often depersonalized and
sometimes discriminatory of the ancient Mayan knowledge, which combines the
knowledge of plants with medicinal powers, the remnants of ancient religion and
the power of the word expressed in ritual orality.
In traditional medicine, as it continues to be practiced in the indigenous com-
munities of Yucatan, a number of specialists put into practice knowledge and
therapies that have retained their deep (Maya) roots. Bone-setters, midwives,
masseurs, herbalists and curers (men as well as women) attend to the physical and
psychological needs (and those of magico-religious nature) of the indigenous
population. For their part the h-meno'ob are the ritual specialists who have the
prerogative of carrying out agricultural rituals, although they too can, and do,
perform many of the above-mentioned roles. In their dialogue with the
supernatural, the h-meno'ob try to obtain, or restore, the good-will of the gods
towards man, and ask for their protection for the milpa, beneficent rains
and good crops and the health of the owner of the milpa and his family. The
medical role of the traditional healer, both socializing and cohesive in nature,
nowadays confronts the onslaught of modern allopathic and pharmacological
medicine which, although effec-tive in many cases, is also often depersonalized
and discriminatory against ancient Maya wisdom, which conjoins the knowledge
of medicinal plants, vestiges of the ancient reli-gion and the power of the word as
it is expressed in ritual orality.
To begin, let us define what we mean by traditional medicine and the specialists
who practice it. Firstly, this term establishes a clear distinction between traditional
therapeutics and allopathic medicine or biomedicine, the therapeutic system of
Hippocratic origin on which our Western medicine is based. As used in this work,
the term traditional medicine refers to uses and practices that, although they have
undergone changes over the centuries, basically follow a line of tradition whose
roots come from antiquity.
There is a fundamental difference between this and its counterpart, allopathic
medicine or biomedicine. The first is a modern, rationalist and mechanical science,
based on the biomedical system and the second consists of a plurality of traditional
healing systems, holistic, impregnated with spirituality and contextually dependent
However, it is obvious that traditional medicine has not remained untouched and
that, as it continues to be practiced in indigenous communities, it has been adapted
over time, incorporating some new elements (new practices, concepts and ideas, as
well as occasionally some drugs). This, however, does not mean that what
constitutes its particular essence has disappeared.
It remains as a point of reference that collection of magical-religious beliefs, ritual
practices and the use of indigenous medicinal plants derived from ancestral
knowledge, ancient practices that continue to employ the espe-cialists of both
sexes: midwives, sobadores, hueseros, yerbateros, curanderos and h-meno'ob
whose work will be discussed instead.
The main characteristic of traditional medicine is precisely its autochthonous
character and its rooting in ancient beliefs and practices that, although lost in time,
have left their traces both in the memory of the people and in the colonial sources.
It is a medicine that has a strong religious component, based on the help of
supernatural beings (both pre-Hispanic and Catholic) to know and carry out the
healing of the disease.
Like the rest of the indigenous cultural complex, traditional medicine has suffered
the onslaught of time. Moreover, it is only in relatively recent times that it has been
given the respect it deserves, although it has not yet been able to escape certain
opprobrium in some quarters. As Anzures and Bolaños (1989) have pointed out, in
the eyes of most of what constitutes the dominant society it continues to be a non-
"official", non-"legalized", non-"civilized and educated", non-"university" and
non-scientific medicine (ibid).
On the other hand, it must be clarified that what we know as "traditional medicine"
is not a pristine complex that has remained frozen, unchanged, in time, but as we
will see later, there have been and continue to be many changes. As Anzures and
Bolaños (ibid.) point out, the term "traditional medicine" "is not synonymous with
indigenous medicine, nor with Spanish colonial medicine, a new form derived
from both currents and augmented by new contributions.
As the collective memory weakens, certain elements are lost and new ones are
incorporated, giving way to the modern. Finally, it should be noted that there are
variations and differences among specialists, both regional and individual. In
writing these pages, I am basing myself on the research that I carried out during
more than twenty years in the southern cone of the peninsula, in particular the
towns of Ticul, Pustunich, Oxkutzcab and Mani, where I began my fieldwork and
where my oldest informants reside. Over the years my research extended to other
towns such as Tecoh, Teabo and Cuzama and later to the north (Motul, Tekanto
and Tixcochoh) and other parts of the peninsula.
Despite the variability noted above, the constant is that, in contrast to official
medicine (or biomedicine), traditional medicine in the Yucatan has a
fundamentally religious basis in which ritual plays an important role, an element
that has not changed over time. It is home to a whole cultural concept and
philosophy that has its origins in the pre-Columbian past in which it is anchored.
Traditional therapists are very aware of the natural origin of many diseases and
physical ailments and have notions of the effects of viral or bacterial agents. We
have already seen that there are specialists such as the bone doctor, the midwife,
the groom, the herbalist who treat cases of this nature. However, generally the
indigenous therapist is aware of his limitations and does not attend the cases he
considers serious but refers them to the allopathic doctor.
On the other hand, illnesses of uncertain cause or that are considered to have a
supernatural origin play a very important role in the traditional community. To this
end, specialists are consulted with the appropriate knowledge for their healing: the
healers and h-meno'ob (whose sphere of action is defined below), who through
prayers and rituals can counteract their effects. These illnesses can be the result of
a punishment ordered by the spirits or gods for infractions committed by humans,
whether of a social or religious order. They can also come from an external will
and have an evil origin (spell or "fact") sent, through a specialist in black magic,
by someone motivated by hatred or envy.
Other evils can be caused by the involuntary action of another person, without the
latter trying to cause harm, for example, the "eye" of a drunkard, a hot person, a
pregnant woman, etc. However, it is mostly babies or young children who are
affected because they are still tender. Although the "eye" is physically manifested
by crying, diarrhea, fever, drowsiness and the typical shrinking of the eyes, the
cause is still supernatural.
Other illnesses that have a supernatural origin, but whose effects are physically
mani-pedied are the so-called "bad" winds, or "bad air" that can affect a person
who crosses where that wind has beaten, or who gets too close to a cenote
(particularly women or children) and thus "carries" that wind. The physical
disorders it causes in the victim are headaches, fever, disorientation and even
delirium. Other ills that have a supernatural origin are "fright" and loss of soul"
(Guiteras Holmes, 1961) (even though informants in my area claim not to know
them).
Apart from this fundamental difference between the two systems (the religious vs.
the purely scientific approach), other characteristics are evident and can be
grouped under the following headings:
-The healing agent
-The place where this takes place
-The social stratum of the clientele
-The pharmacopoeia
-The concept of disease

HEALING SPECIALISTS

S tarting with the obvious, we will say that in traditional medicine the
healing agent is the traditional therapist or healer, the counterpart of the
practitioners of the "biomedical" system and their team, mediating between
the two various differences that will be discussed below. However, first of all, we
will have to define what constitutes the specialty of each of these indigenous
specialists.
There are also lags in the ancient phlebotomian or bleeder (ah tok'), although today
it does not seem to be a separate specialty, but rather one more aspect of the
healer's work. The sangrador uses a snake's fang, a fish bone, a plant's thorn, or a
simple piece of glass to carry out the sangria (tok'). By this means he lets bad air
escape or relieves pain (e.g. of head, bones, etc.), making the "bad blood" flow.
However, while some healers continue to use this method, others have indicated to
me that doctors have already warned them that the practice is unhealthy and that
there is a possibility of infection, so they have stopped doing it.
There is not a clear division of labor by sex, although the bones are mostly men,
while the majority of those who attend to the mothers are women. The knowledge
of both derives from empirical learning, almost always from the hand of a relative
who practices or used to practice the same trade or, in its absence, starting as an
assistant to a special socialist.
Herbalists, bone cutters, sobadores and midwives (that is, those who physically
manipulate the body of their patients) do not need supernatural legitimation to
practice their specialty, having derived their pragmatic knowledge from someone
who is generally a family member. In the case of the future herbalist, he or she is
learning to recognize plants and their properties, while accompanying the family
member specialized in the trade in their collection, who is often the mother or
father, grandparents, uncles, etc.
The above-mentioned specialists carry out their work in a pragmatic way, generally
without the intervention of any ritual, which distinguishes them from the field of
action of the healer (as I define it below) or the h'men, and therefore, given the
focus of this work the latter remain outside the perimeter of my analysis.
Before giving my own definition of "curandero", I would like to point out that it is
very common among people, both in the village and in the city, to use this term to
refer to all the traditional therapists listed above, as well as to the specialists I
define below (i.e., the "curan-deros", as I define them and the h-meno'ob), that is,
without differentiating between them.
However, according to my own definition and as you will see throughout these
pages, I use the term in a very specific way. I consider that the healers form a
separate group, with a much wider field of action than the previous ones, although
they can carry out some of their specializations. Also because of their handling of
spiritual healings they are closer to the field of action of the h-men.
The healers occupy an intermediate point between the ante-men specialists and the
h-meno'ob. They share some functions with the former, such as groomers or
herbalists, although, with exceptions, they generally do not work as bone cutters or
midwives. On the other hand, like the h-men (priest-ritualist), the healer divines by
means of various methods and attends to both the psychic and physical aspects of
the illness. He performs certain rites, for example, to ward off bad winds or undo a
spell, and to cure culturally defined illnesses such as cirrus, the eye, bad wind and
salation or a streak of bad luck. He also performs healing ceremonies such as
santigua, k'ex, and wach' ik'.
In these functions, both the healer and the h-men move within the realm of the
supernatural, praying, invoking, conjuring, which involves both entities of pre-
Columbian origin and numerous Catholic saints, the Triune God and the Virgin.
The religious element, therefore, is an important part of the work they do, which,
as I said, in a way brings the healer closer to the field of action of the h'men than to
the group first described.
The h-meno'ob share many of the jobs performed by the healers, as we have
defined them above: they guess, they cure with herbs, sometimes they knead,
although as a rule they are not midwives, and they perform the ritual cures
mentioned above. However, despite the shared functions we have discussed, there
is a vital distinction that mediates between the healer and the h'men; the priestly
role of the latter. The h-men has the exclusive right to perform the important
agricultural rituals: the wahi k'ol, the heets' lu'um, and the ch'a chaak and other
ceremonies, to acknowledge the benefits received and to ask for the continued
protection of the over-natural entities, for example, for the corral (loh corral), the
beehives (wahi kab) and the shotguns (ts'on).
Among my informants, both men and women, without exception, this priestly-
ritualistic work is considered to be reserved exclusively for men. The same h-
meno'ob are very clear in affirming that women should not officiate in the
agricultural rites, both because "the work would go badly", and because of the
danger it could mean for them, an opinion that seems to be shared by the same
women.
However, I have witnessed several ceremonies carried out by a healer I have
known for more than twenty-five years. When I met her in the early 1980s, she and
her husband were officiating a wahi k'ol together. Later, at the death of the last one,
she officiated in what she calls "primicias", but because of the "contras" that are
buried in the four corners and the center of the ground, she points to the heets'
lu'um, since these are the particular distinctive of this agricultural rite. Questioned
about this, several h'meno'ob, let it be known that this ceremony is not as strictly
taboo for women as the others, but that it is still an exception that they carry out.
However, from time to time we hear that x-menes (female priestess-ritualists) also
existed and still exist, but this is not frequent. Many do not recognize the existence
of these, although Michel Boccara points out that one of his interlocutors, an h-
men from Tabi, is one of the few who use this term, thus recognizing the existence
of the x-men (or faiseuses ).
Unlike the sobadores, midwives and yerbateros whose learning is empirical, both
the healer and the h-men consider that he has been called by supernatural forces to
exercise his craft; either because he inherited this faculty from some family
member or because he was born with this "gift" and was later called by his
protective spirits to exercise this ability. He may dream it or unusual events may
occur to him. Several healers relate that, while in their cornfield, they were carried
away by a wind or whirlpool and only after several days were they able to return
home. One insists that he was away for three years during which an old man
apprenticed him and taught him the art of healing. The call can also have negative
consequences, if one does not agree to practice it or refuses to receive it outright.
Several healers and curan-deras have told me that by refusing, they fell ill, having
a very difficult time, and that only by accepting the call did they regain their
health.
All of this - the call and the legitimization by supernatural forces - gives them the
right to move within that world and to call and occupy the spirits or supernatural
forces, both of Catholic and pre-Columbian origin. The "protectors" and "brothers"
to whom the healer goes also play an important role in carrying out a cure.
The fundamental work of both the healer and the h-men are prayers and
invocations, an indispensable part of both the healing rites and the ceremonies
carried out by the h-meno'ob. Both reflect a strong Catholic presence in the prayers
and invocations where there is never a lack of invocations to God the Father, God
the Son and the Holy Spirit, to the Virgin and a great number of saints, for
example, St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Roch, St. Isidore, St. Raphael and countless others,
depending on each h-men. Simultaneously, the pre-Columbian supernatural entities
play an important role: the spirits of the mountain, the yuntzilo'ob and the
balamo'ob, ch'aco'ob and aluxo'ob.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TRADITIONAL

THERAPISTS AND THE PRACTITIONERS OF
BIOMEDICINE

H aving defined the function of each of these specialists, let us now

analyze the points of difference between the traditional therapist and the
Western-formed doctor, firstly with regard to their locus of action. A
large number, if not the majority, of the latter have their practice in the city (in
particular the specialists), although today they also have a strong presence in the
towns and villages, while, in general, the traditional therapist continues to live in
his village, as he has always done.
In the past, there were no doctors in rural areas and traditional specialists served in
that role, using knowledge transmitted from generation to generation, based very
particularly on a vast knowledge of indigenous medicinal plants. Over time, clinics
and health centers have been built, and there is no shortage of rural doctors in
regular-sized towns. In serious cases people go to hospitals or to the Ministry of
Health or the IMSS and, if possible, they go to Merida. Nevertheless, indigenous
therapists continue to practice their profession, attending to those who come to
them.
Generally, both the consultorios and the clinics or health centers are located in a
central point of the town or village and are made of lime and song, while the
traditional therapist's house until relatively recently
was still made of bajareque and guano and was somewhat more removed from the
center. All of my informants in the towns mentioned above reside a little far from
the center of town, except for one, who after many years changed his practice from
a little ranch outside the town to a masonry house two blocks from the center. This
change was due to his wife's illness, since he had to attend to her every so often
and was hampered by the distance between his little ranch and his house. Another
exception, already far from my research radius, is the Yobaín bonehead who does
live in the center of the village. In both cases they are famous healers, with a
growing number of patients and higher incomes than most. However, I want to
emphasize that I am talking specifically about my area of research and I do not
deny in any way that in other areas another pattern may exist.
As far as the clientele is concerned, we can say that the allopathic doctor's
clientele, like that of clinics, hospitals and health centers, is mixed; both more
affluent and humble people come, and those with few resources, although in the
higher-ranking clinics the former predominate, simply because of economic
considerations. As far as the patients of the traditional therapist are concerned,
most of them come from their same social condition, that is, from the poor rural
sector, and this is influenced by both economic and cultural reasons. However, it is
not limited exclusively to this group, since some of them are also consulted by
people from the middle or wealthy classes, particularly when it comes to diseases
of uncertain origin or those attributed to witchcraft or sorcery, or if, having
consulted an allopathic doctor (or other healer), the patient has not obtained the
desired results.
However, over the years there has been a growing trend to modernize housing, as
much as possible with limited means, a trend that was noticed even before
Hurricane Isidore. But, if on the one hand the money generated by migration has
been providing the means, after the destruction that Hurricane Isidoro caused, the
government organized a program to manufacture lime and stone houses. In the
acceptance of this change, the sense of status plays an important role, in addition to
the security factor. Today many people prefer modern houses and if they have not
been touched and continue to live in the guano houses they feel that they have been
left behind. However, there is no lack of old people who miss their traditional
house.
Merida or other remote locations, to consult with a healer of your choice in some
village or town. When asked about this, they inform me that it is because they have
heard about it and that it has been recommended to them as effective. Other times
they go to him because they have not obtained results with the doctors previously
consulted. Of course, faith has a lot to do with this and there are patients who go to
the same healer again and again simply because they trust him or have had good
results on occasions before doctors and therefore continue to consult him for other
problems or mishaps that they encounter (the same happens with those who consult
the doctors allotted to them, faith being a very important factor in both cases).
Another consideration, but not always so openly manifested, is the fact of wanting
to keep the consultation a secret, as indeed "small town, big hell", where there is
always an abundance of gossip and tell-tale. By consulting a healer outside their
area they feel more confident that it will not be known, apart from the general
tendency of human beings to value what is outside more than their own.
Today, the curandero, just like the h'men, continues to receive his clientele in his
home, whether it is a traditional bajareque with a guano roof or a modern one made
of cement,28 sitting in front of a table that serves as an altar, usually richly
decorated with glasses full of flowers, one or several candles, a crucifix, saints'
prints, etc. This denotes that the patient is in a sacred enclosure, a place where
contact with the supernatural is established. The profane remains outside, although
strange noises always intrude: a moped or a passing car, children's cries, birds'
cackling, dogs' barking, someone knocking from afar or knocking at the door.
In their work, both the healer and the h-men, sitting in front of their altar, perform
a series of rites that are an integral part of healing, beginning with the essential
sweeping of the patient's body with a rue piece, or zipche,29 which is accompanied
by continuous prayers. Although in a simple case no visits are made, in addition
the therapist has to make veils. He then prescribes remedies, mostly based on
medicinal plants: baths, poultices, cakes, syrups, etc., depending on the disease.
Although the therapist can work alone, as several of my informants do, others
indicate that the ideal is to have an assistant. This is even more necessary on
occasions when the patient "incorporates" or enters into a trance, or in more
complex cases, where several things are required to reach him/her: a candle, a
medicine, or in the ceremony of the change or the untying, help him/her to tie and
untie the patient. Generally it is the wife who assumes this role (or the husband in
the case of a healer), because these are matters that must be kept in confidence,30
in addition to the fact that the assistant must be familiar with the details of the
ritual, the prayers with which she sometimes accompanies the healer, and the
remedies that the healer will prescribe. In addition, the healer believes that if she or
he enters into a trance/"incorporation", or if the rituals are dangerous for her or him
and she is vulnerable, she or he must be able to trust the helper.
The allopathic physician, on the other hand, consults in his cabinet, in the clinic or
health center, or in the hospital, where certain requirements and forms are filled out
before the patient can pass with him. The latter is usually assisted by a nurse (and a
receptionist in the anteroom or clinic), although the rural doctor mostly does not
have assistants or as many forms as his urban counterpart.
Unlike the healer, who relies almost exclusively on remedies based on medicinal
plants (although nowadays he occasionally uses some drugs or naturist products),
the allopath is governed by scientific advances and uses pharmaceuticals produced
synthetically in a laboratory, although it is true that some of these replicate the
properties of healing plants. And in this much more formal therapeutic
environment, the only thing that in some way could be considered as a kind of
ritual, occurs in the interaction, highly hierarchical, between the doctor and his
patient. Here, instead of the religious element, it is science that rules.
Although the allopathic physician theoretically treats people from all social
classes, as a rule his fees are too high for the less affluent, both in the rural and
urban sectors. In addition to not having sufficient means for the consultation, the
poor, particularly those in the rural sector, often feel uncomfortable or intimidated
by the environment in which the consultation takes place, both in the office of a
private physician and in the clinic or hospital. I have even been told that they often
feel that they are treated with disrespect or disregard and even contempt. In
addition, many are monolingual and feel inhibited by some difficulty in expressing
themselves in Spanish. This is not to generalize; certainly not all allopaths behave
in a discriminatory manner. However, these are opinions that I have heard over and
over again, in addition to having had the opportunity to witness it personally when
accompanying some of my informants or family members to a medical office or
clinic. I noted that the treatment was disrespectful, sometimes even abrupt, and
generally paternal when reporting the illness. However, the important thing to
consider here is not my personal opinion on the matter, but rather how the patient
experiences the environment and his or her relationship with the physician, which
he or she judges negatively.
On the other hand, I would like to point out that there are efforts to reach out to
indigenous communities, both by individuals and by the biomedical system, for
example, the establishment of indigenous clinics in various parts of the peninsula,
to which it is intended to attract traditional therapists, or the collaboration between
allopaths and midwives so that together they can attend to the woman in labor and
her baby. The biomedical system has also faced the problems mentioned above and
in order to achieve an approach and a greater understanding of the indigenous
communities, it is offering courses in Mayan for professionals, including doctors
who practice there. Other courses are aimed at health team personnel so that, when
attending patients, they take into account the intercultural situation, or in one
specific case, the use of hammocks in the delivery room. All are laudable efforts,
but recent and I believe somewhat belated.
Despite these basic but merely formal differences between traditional and
allopathic medicine (traditional therapist vs. official medicine or biomedicine,
locus of healing, social stratum of the clientele, methods of
THE ROLE OF RITUAL AND RELIGION IN THERAPY
and different pharmacopoeias), neither is as fundamental as the conceptual aspect
that defines the two systems. The holistic concept that prevails in traditional
medicine and its recourse to religion and ritual as an essential part of healing does
not find an echo in allopathic medicine. Traditional medicine is not only concerned
with the physical-psychic aspect of disease,32 but also plays an important role in
the social aspect. It is based on the idea that there must be harmony between the
members of society and between society and the environment, which contributes to
their health in the broadest sense of the word.
Traditional medicine functions as social medicine, a concept alien to our
industrialized societies that do not conceive of illness but rather as a physical or
psychic maladjustment, curable (with the exception of terminal cases) by means of
therapies favored by official medicine or biomedicine, drugs made in laboratories
and, more recently, in some cases, alternative medicine.
The premise of traditional medicine is based on certain religious obligations that
man has to fulfill, the duty to maintain harmonious social relations and due respect
for his environment. In accordance with these precepts, it is considered that a
social dysfunction, whether at the community or interpersonal level, can lead to
divine sanctions or manifest itself in envy or ill will. Therefore, there is a constant
fear of spells and illnesses of a magical-religious nature such as "fright", "bad
air/wind", "the eye", etc. Since this link between the illness and the super-natural
world exists, religion and ritual cannot but be an indispensable part of the healing
process. For this reason, the magical-religious concept of illness still prevails in
traditional medicine,33 a concept which by necessity is in conflict with the
scientific method of biomedicine or allopathic medicine.
In spite of the aforementioned differences between the two therapeutic systems,
there is no reason for the barrier that used to divide them so sharply to continue to
exist. This was largely due to a lack of understanding or disbelief regarding the
efficacy of traditional healing and even a certain disdain on the part of some
allopaths, although certainly not all members of the medical establishment.
For their part, healers are very aware of the effectiveness of pharmaceuticals; they
are not unfamiliar with some simple medical concepts, and are not averse to some
form of collaboration with doctors. Moreover, in cases of serious illnesses, and
aware of the responsibility they entail, they increasingly refrain from treating them,
preferring to send the patient to the doctor or to the clinic or hospital. They make a
strict distinction between these illnesses, from those that they say are "not ours",
and those that they think are and can cure. While one cannot generalize or make
assumptions about their motivation in refraining from treating certain diseases, I do
not believe that one can attribute to them what at first glance might seem a cynical
desire to pass on the difficult problem to another.
At least in the case of my informants, I know that they do believe that in cases of
diseases of natural origin and even more in those of seriousness (for example, heart
problems, nephritic, diabetes, etc.) and of course where an operation is indicated,
allopathic medicine is the appropriate one. When it comes to your children, and
particularly if they are children or babies, they invariably go to the doctor. Also for
respiratory problems, fevers, infections, etc. they go to the pharmacy instead of
preparing the potions that were formerly used. By taking this path and also
recommending it to their patients in the exposed cases, the same healers contribute
to their patients seeking the solution to their physical ailments by means of
allopathic medicine.
As for the fact that the healers generally do not treat their own in case of illness, it
is also true that, except in exceptional cases, the allopathic physician does not treat
members of his own family either. In both cases it is necessary to consider the
danger they run if the sick person cannot be cured, the blame would fall on him
and he would have to suffer the reproaches of the family.
To the question of why in cases of illness the healer or h-men does not go to
another of his or her same profession, one must consider the ambiguity that
surrounds the profession and the distrust that persists among the same healers.
They fear that, by placing themselves in the hands of their fellow men, they may
cast a spell on them or cause them some evil -the fear of the spell is everywhere.
No single explanation can be favoured for the phenomenon of the growing
orientation of the indigenous community towards allopathic medicine, although I
have noted some above. Nor should it be forgotten that, as clinics and health
centers and hospitals have become accessible to indigenous communities, they are
competing with the traditional therapist in curing "natural" diseases.
On the other hand, there seems to be a clear correlation between the rise in prestige
of allopathic medicine and the gradual weakening of faith in the effectiveness of
traditional means. Why should the traditional medical system be an exception, as
we see the effects of increasing "modernization" on other aspects of traditional
life? There is a tendency to value the modern more than the old or traditional, in
the way of dressing, living, building houses, etc., the increasing use of Spanish, the
introduction of "fast food" and American tastes. It is a general lament among my
informants that today "people no longer believe".
Some approaches between those who practice traditional medicine and allopaths
have been mentioned above, for example the establishment of indigenous health
centers, as there are in Yaxcabá, Siho, Hecelchakan and other points, where in a
way there is cooperative work. Or those cases where, for example, the midwife
works with a gynecologist, or a curan-dera is trained to give injections or serums.
Such approaches can only be to the benefit of both, but on the other hand it seems
to me a contradiction for the healer to leave his little house, precisely the place
where his patient feels comfortable, to go to a dispensary, a place that is not
familiar to him or his patients. Several of the healers I have talked to do not feel
comfortable in such circumstances and refrain from going. In the specific case of
Yaxcaba, my informants have told me that as time passes, fewer and fewer people
go to that center.

BACKGROUND OF THE CONCEPT OF ILLNESS

A lready in the pre-Columbian codices Dresden and Madrid the magic-

religious concept of the disease is manifested, which is an important
part of some pages of these codices and reflects the deity-illness
interrelationship. In several of his works Thompson (1958; 1972; 1988), he
discusses this theme, focusing not only on the Mayan belief in the divine origin of
disease, but also on the important role played in it by the goddess Ixchel. As a
lunar deity, and also as Acna, she was the patron of the disease; but also in its
positive aspect she was the patron of medicine,36 of women in general, of fertility
and prognosis. She was venerated in a temple in Cozumel that was dedicated to
her, and that the Historical-Geographical Relations of the Government of Yucatan
describes in the following way:
... before all this land and Indians used to go to the said island to worship a certain
idol they had in certain old buildings, which they venerated very much; that they
went to the said island to worship the said idol as if they were going to win
pardons, because they went from Tabasco and Xicalango and Chanpoton and
Canpeche and other distant towns
...] and in the said buildings where the said idol was, they had and there was an old
Indian who they called Alquin [Ahk'in], which means in our language clergyman
or priest and they told him what they were coming to and what they wanted, and
the said old Indian Alquyn [Ahk'in] spoke to the idol or to the devil, who they say
was inside him, who answered him to everything he asked him [. ...] and the old
Indian, after having spoken to the idol, would give them the answer [...] and this
idol was called Yschel [Ixchel].
In ancient times there was also a great pre-Columbian center in Izamal where a
temple had been erected dedicated to another deity of medicine, Itzam Na. There,
wide roads came together from the four corners of the earth, where pilgrims would
come on pilgrimages to consult the deity, whom they venerated as a working hand
and an oracle.37 As Lizana (1893 [1633]; part 1a, chapter IV: 4 and 4v) reports,
they came from as far away as Chiapas and Guatemala (Acuña, 1995: 63) and
López de Cogolludo (1971; Book IV, chapter VIII: 256) informs us that
... they made pilgrimages from all over, and for this purpose four roads were made
in the east, west, north and half a day, which ran through all this land, and passed
to Tabasco, Chiapa and Guatemala, which today there are signs of them in some
parts. So much was the contest of people, who came to these oracles of Itzamat ul,
and Kab ul ... .
Also the Ritual of the Bacabes reflects the belief in the divine origin of the disease.
Numerous passages show the gods as the origin of evil (a spirit-wild-illness link)
for whose cure it was indispensable to know the details of the origin of the disease
and its genea-logy, its association with the cardinal points, the cosmic trees and the
symbolic birds that corresponded to it. In the Ritual, the healer enters into action,
calling, urging, even insulting the gods in an effort to overcome the spirit-wild-
illness that afflicts the patient.
For his part, Calepino de Motul (Arzápalo, 1995) reflects the fact that indigenous
medicine was intimately linked with religion and witchcraft, and provides us with
interesting data on Mayan medicine. It contains a list of indigenous flora and
fauna, as well as some diseases, and the healer-specialists who could cause or cure
them: the ah pul auat made children scream, ah pul kazab threw stangurria38
(idem); ah pul nachbac caused ethics (idem); ah pul cimil made people sick (idem),
ah pul nok tii yit uinic made worms penetrate the body; ah pul uenel caused
numbness (idem), ah pul xankiik (idem) caused women to bleed, etc. Only a few
healers, the herbalist, the ah ohel tu kinam xiuoob (folio 24v) and the
phlebotomian or bleeder, the ah tok exempt themselves from this negative
association.
etcetera - were forgotten or merged with Catholic saints: for example, Ixchel with
the Virgin Mary. The report of the priest of Yaxcabá, Bartolomé José Granado
Baeza (1948 [1813]), reflects this syncretism as he informs us that an old foreman
told him that the Pauahtunes were associated with several saints: the red Pauahtun,
sitting in the east, with Santo Domingo, the white one in the west, with Saint
Gabriel, the black one in the west, with Saint Diego, and in the middle the yellow
goddess Xkanleox, with Mary Magdalene.
Although the ancient deities mentioned above still play an important role in the
agricultural rituals that are carried out for the protection of the land and all that is
found in it, as well as in the petition for rain, in these ceremonies the Catholic
saints also have an important presence. At the same time, the concept of the
magical-religious origin of the disease persists, with those of uncertain origin
attributed to the action of the gods.
In Yucatan until recently both the urban and rural indigenous (mestizo) wealthy
population has been nominally Catholic. That is, they attend mass (women more
often than men), enthusiastically participate in festivities for saints and guild
celebrations; they observe the days marked on the Catholic saint's day with
prayers, rosaries, etc. However, there are many who recognize that "I am a
Catholic, even if I am not a practicing one.
At the same time there is a strong and growing evangelical presence, which
represents a new shock force that attacks in a hostile way all that remains of the
traditional beliefs, be it the agricultural rites, the traditional way of dressing, the
traditional healing and of course the dancing and drinking. While over the
centuries there has been an accommodation between traditional beliefs and
Catholicism,43 today evangelicalism in a way works very similarly to the
missionaries who were charged with converting indigenous peoples in the
sixteenth century, wanting to impose themselves at the cost of all that is traditional.
This can cause conflict between family members who still belong to the Catholic
Church and those who have converted to Protestantism and whose beliefs are
found. It can be something as simple as refusing to drink or dance at a family
gathering or refusing to attend a family reunion for these reasons, or something as
serious as wanting to burn or destroy the saints in the house.
Simultaneously, a substrate of beliefs prevails that goes back to pre-Hispanic
times. As it has been pointed out, the agricultural deities still have a strong
presence in the miller rites, fantastic beings like the X-tabay and the aluxes live in
the collective memory and many other beliefs are still in force. The concept of the
magical-religious origin of the illness so well illustrated in the Ritual of the
Bacabes also persists, in addition to the syncretism elaborated through the colonial
time. However, the belief in the spell is so strong that even to evils that we could
consider "natural", or to a mishap like a fall, a supernatural origin can be
attributed, by the suspicion that some person, moved by jealousy, envy or bad will,
has requested the intervention of a specialist in black magic, dedicated to do the
evil. Remaining diseases of supernatural origin fall within the scope of the healers
and h-meno'ob and whose cure requires a series of rituals, which are discussed
below.

RELIGION AND RITUALITY IN TRADITIONAL

MEDICINE
I
n traditional healing, prayer is an essential element, part of the ritual that
accompanies the cleansing or the act of sanctifying, exorcism, the rites of
passage (ke'ex) and of untying (wach ik'). It also accompanies the work
carried out by the healer to ward off evil spirits, to remove harmful elements from
his patient's body, to cure the evil eye, bad air, salation, etc.44 As Anzures and
Bolaños (1989: 109) point out, in these cases "medicine is based on two elements:
the beliefs of the patient and the convictions about the cause of the illness, points
shared by the native doctor, a member of the same culture as the patient.
As previously noted, the locus for the healings is the little house of the healer with
all its paraphernalia: the cross, the prints of the saints, the lit candles, the
indispensable flowers "because the gods like smells". All this lends it an aura of
sacredness. Here one will pray, and here one will find healing for evils.
As a previous step, it is necessary the divination that represents the supernatural
intervention of the spirit-protectors on whom the healer depends to legitimize his
diagnosis to the patient. Only after having made contact with them will the healer
inform the patient of the evil that afflicts him/her, where it comes from and what
must be done to cure it.
All the healers with whom I have worked over many years agree that their
diagnosis is based on the information of their pro-tectors, who transmit to them, by
means of the sastun45 or translucent stone, the game of the candle or the trance,
the knowledge of the disease and its origin and the way to cure it. They also use
the egg, which when passed through the patient's body, allows the absorption of
bad fluids and thus makes the disease known. By breaking the egg inside a glass,
the healer can make his diagnosis according to a series of indications: if there are
blood threads, if it is cloudy, if it falls to the bottom, and so on.
Other forms of divination are by means of corn cobs, the key or cards. However,
the key and the cobs are generally used when it is a matter that can be resolved
with a simple affirmative or negative indication. For example, in the case of the
theft of a piece of clothing, the key is consulted by naming, one after the other, the
person suspected of having committed the crime. When the name is correct, the
key turns, indicating that this is the person who has committed the theft; when not,
it remains motionless and the question must be asked again until the culprit is
found.
When the patient, or a family member who replaces him (in case he cannot be
present personally),46 comes to consult the healer, they are in a familiar
environment in which they can move with confidence. Instead of the doctor's
office that intimidates him, the healer's house is very similar to his, he dresses the
same as him and possibly he is also a thousand, both belong to the same social
stratum. They may be neighbors or acquaintances but, even if not, they share the
same worldview and speak the same language. The table and the altar with
numerous religious elements, the cross, prints or statuettes of the saints, vessels
with flowers in honor of the saints, also instill confidence in him.

THE ROLE OF RITUAL AND RELIGION IN

THERAPY

I n general, it can be said that the healer proceeds according to a model that is
common to most of these specialists, although variations and an individual
style are observed. To begin with, it is essential to "sweep" the patient's body
with a piece of rue,47 of zipche,48 or of basil.49 The object is to extract the bad
fluids, whether they are caused by air/ wind, eye, or some damage that has been
sent by another healer specialized in doing evil, who has been hired by an enemy.
The sanctity is accompanied by prayers, both in Spanish and in Mayan, as well as
by repeated sweepings.
Some healers use books in Spanish such as the Mystical Crown, the Book of
Mediums (Gardek, 1953), the Work of St. Cyprian and St. Justine 1984, etc., and
recite Catholic prayers, or "hacer lírico" (i.e. from memory) and it is said that the
ancients used "rezos líricos", sometimes sung, in Mayan. Some recite passages in
Mayan and others in Spanish (sometimes Catholic liturgical texts), or a mixture of
both; a healer combines passages in Mayan (recitations from memory) with
passages read from the mystical Crown.
The curandero does not observe a rigid label of questions and answers, does not
limit the time of the consultation, does not speak in terms that the patient
frequently does not understand, as often happens in medical offices, but rather
dedicates a few moments of purely social treatment, turning the conversation
around topics of common interest: the family, the cornfield, the dearth of life,
politics. Only after that, he asks about the patient's symptoms and he explains
them, either about purely physical ailments or about any strange phenomenon he
has seen or heard that could be attributed to a spell.
It has already been noted that in order to make the diagnosis, that is, to determine
what has caused the disease and how it is to be cured, the healer consults his sastun
or enters into a trance (he joins in) to consult with his spirit-protectors. It should be
mentioned here that many healers say they are "spiritualists", but not in the sense
that this term is generally used, but in the specific sense that they turn to their
spirit-protectors both for the diagnosis of the disease and for its cure. This aspect is
manifested in that, after having carried out the first formalities of the consultation
to find out the symptoms presented by the patient, the healer begins to concentrate
and evidence that he or she has come into contact with these spirits (a kind of
trance or incorporation), either by changing the voice, or by greeting the patient in
a way that denotes that it is not the healer who is speaking, but a spirit through him
or her. Thus, when he comes to, he greets with a "good morning" or "afternoon," as
if to imply that he was absent. When I was present, he turned to me to greet me and
ask, "When did you arrive, Mrs. Ruth?
In one of the sessions observed, the healer was sitting at her table where there was
a lit candle and a glass with a sastun. She began to pray, at first all in Mayan; she
chanted in a very low voice and repeated rhythmically her invocation to the Lord:
"In Yuum, in yuum, in yuum". At the same time he raised his arms high (later he
explained that he did it as a sign of reverence for the presence of the spirits and
because he was invoking the Holy Spirit). He took the candle and moved it to the
four cardinal points, while continuing to pray. He continued to sing very quietly for
some time, and when he finished, he took the candle, placed it where he had been
at the beginning and extinguished it.
He then explained to me that it is the play of the candle that reveals the patient's
condition: "it is the play of the one who is calling and showing what is harming. If
the candle does not move, it means "there is nothing"; if it falls forward several
times, it is "like an announcement of what it is", showing where the disease is
located. If the candle falls 7 or 11 times it is a sign of bad influences, if it falls
Sometimes strong air has caused the disease, and if it falls 13 times it is a sign of
evil. Nine touches are made to chase away the bad influence and discover what is
good. You invoke the five great saints: Saint John of the Kill, Saint John of the
Cross, Saint John Paul, Saint John the Baptist, Saint John of God, who are the five
great
He showed me the sastun and told me to look at it; that a large ball could be seen
indicating the patient's disease-in this case, inflammation of the stomach and large
intestine-and two other smaller ones indicating back pain. He prescribed to the
patient that, when he arrived at his house, he should make an infusion with the
following plants: sinaik, tancasche, taray, elemuy and x-tipte ak. He spoke of his
work and said that "before Christ, demons and sorcerers were not expelled, but
when he left, he left behind the works and they come until now from the
grandparents to the grandchildren.
Another informant, in this case an herbalist, uses a small black jar which, when not
in use, is covered with a black cloth beside which rests a good-sized ball of wax.
After talking with the patient, the healer goes to the table, uncovers the little jar
and with the ball of wax touches the table. At the same time he prays, he looks into
the little jar and tells the patient what he sees. In this case, it is the jar that gives the
diagnosis. As a good herbalist and with the experience of more than 30 years, he
diagnoses according to the symptoms described by his patients; he also plays his
psychologist's game. He does not make clean, but as he says "cure by natural
means". Neither does he have religious objects on the table, only what he needs for
his work, the little jar with the ball of wax, some dried plants and newspaper to
wrap them. When he finishes consulting the little jar, if he considers the illness to
be serious, for example, heart problems, he sends his patient to the doctor; if it is
not so serious or he believes the illness falls within his scope, he gives the patient
some little papers with dry, shredded plants, prepared beforehand, with instructions
for their use. This herbalist has a vast knowledge of medicinal plants; he inherited
his knowledge from various family members who were also herbalists, especially
from his maternal grandmother whom he accompanied as a child to collect
medicinal plants. Although he has several siblings he is the only one who practices
this trade.
Another type of divination is done while in a trance, and several of the healers I
have worked with use this method when the illness is not apparent or a spell is
suspected. Doña Ana, for example, is considered a spiritualist or "mediona" and
uses the trance to make her diagnosis. After the patient has told her about her
symptoms, she begins a long series of prayers, both in Mayan and Spanish, asking
for the help of God and the saints, as well as her protectors. He has about 24
protectors in total, although he does not use them all at the same time nor does he
use them all in the same way. He considers Nelita Gamboa, whom he describes as
mestizo, short and chubby, as his main protector. He says he came with her from
the beginning, telling her everything she should do. While the other protectors
"travel", Nelita stayed with her.
Doña Ana continues to pray and after a while she begins to breathe deeply. After 5
or 10 minutes, all you can hear is her deep breathing. Suddenly she speaks, but in a
kind of falsetto, asking what is wanted from her, and the patient returns to tell her
what has brought him to consult her. Sometimes the healer questions the patient
again and tells him what the entity that is occupying his body says about it. After
the spiritual consultation, and having obtained the information she needed, Doña
Ana takes another deep breath for some time, running her hand over her face and
shaking it as if she were free of something. Later, in a normal voice, she greets the
patient and his companions. She reveals the diagnosis and recommends what the
patient has to do to be cured: take potions of medicinal plants or make baths with
special herbs or flowers, or both, or pray and offer saka'59 to the spirits to appease
them.
Don Felipe does what he calls "childbirth". He uses this mostly to answer specific
questions his patients ask him, for example, if the groom brings good intentions or
has another one, to find out how a loved one is doing far away (mostly in the
United States, for which he has to travel in space and time) or to spiritually inspect
the state of a ranch where unusual things are seen or strange noises are heard.
He nods, indicating that the healer has got something right; other times he corrects
it. When he has received all the information he needs, the healer begins to pray and
ask his protectors about the situation, information which is then passed on to the
patient. He then concludes the ceremony, greets the patient and if any remedy is to
be given, he gives it to him, or if there is to be a remedy, he says so. There is no
hurry to finish and sometimes the patient has other questions or wishes to consult
regarding another problem.
The healer is not only concerned with physical ailments, but also with his patient's
well-being, as when he considers that it is a matter of a spell or an eye, or bad
winds, a situation that has the patient worried and distressed. These cases are
already more serious and require a series of cleanings and exorcisms on nine
Tuesdays and nine Fridays or, if this is not enough, multiples of nine, as necessary
to achieve healing. Sometimes it is necessary for the healer to hold vigils at night
and pray and ask for the help of the protecting spirits to heal his patient and
remedy the situation in which he or his loved ones find themselves. Also in these
cases special baths and potions are prescribed.
Cases of sorcery, usually caused by the envy or ill will of a neighbor or other
family member, are considered very strong and also dangerous, since by removing
the spell, the evil can fall on the healer. These works represent a kind of spiritual
challenge and mourning between two or more healers, each working for his or her
patient. Several of my informants report what they call power challenges between
healers, occasions in which they measure their strength and in which the loser can
pay with his life.
Another more complex and careful type of work is exorcism; as such it is naturally
more expensive as well. It takes time and the healer has to be aware of doing his
prayers both day and night. It is particularly for this type of work that some healers
use the aforementioned books, such as the Mystical Crown and the Book of St.
Cyprian, a curious mixture of Catholicism, mysticism and magic, through which
one invokes the Triune God, the Virgin, the Saints, and so on, asking for their help
in exorcising the demonic beings that are supposed to afflict the patient's body and
soul.60 The power of the saints is invoked, especially St. Peter and St. Paul, St.
Anthony of Padua and St. Anthony the Abbot, St. Benedict, St. Clare, using their
curses and excommunications to undo "all the entanglements and compromises of
all the magicians, witches and wizards, characters, hieroglyphics or even the very
signatures
and covenants with word and action, of all vegetal matters and animal blood in the
name of the thrice holy Trinity, holy God strong, immortal God that we may be
safe and free from your evil" (Mystical crown: 147). The tone changes from
humble and pleading when one invokes God and the saints to threatening when
addressing diabolic beings, who are apostrophized as "enemy demons [and]
hellish" (ibidem: 146) and the Devil as "raptor of life, de-chanter of justice, root of
evil, fomenter of vices, seducer of men". Much depends on repetition to insist, to
urge and to assure the effectiveness of the invocation. There are incantations to
attend to those who have been bitten by poisonous or rabid animals, or to those
who suffer from serious pain, fever or spells. There are spells for animals and for
houses and grounds where goblins, witches, and demons have entered.
Evil spirits are threatened:
I exorcise you, unclean spirit, every incursion of the adversary, every phantom,
every legion in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you may go forth and
depart forever from this image of God. Hear then, and fear, Satan, enemy of faith,
of the human race, bringer of death, taker of life, decanter of justice, root of evil,
promoter of vice, seducer of men, traitor of nations, inciter of envy, cause of
discord, and at last rustic villain, because here you remain, and resist, knowing that
Christ loses your ways Depart, you accursed devil conjured up and forever
expelled son, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. ...]
Do not rest, nor cease from continual work, until all the evil spells, sicknesses, and
pains of both soul and body are dissolved, and, giving a true sign, you leave this
creature forever with all your accompaniment...

TRADITIONAL MEDICINE IN THE 21ST

CENTURY

T oday, traditional medicine is still in use in many less industrialized

societies around the world, in the Americas, Asia and Africa, as well as
among farmers in some areas of Europe. It remains the preferred method
of safeguarding health and curing "psycho-religious" diseases, and also plays an
important role in maintaining social harmony.
In more recent times, traditional medicine has been the subject of study by
anthropologists, ethnologists, botanists and chemists, who compete over time to
study indigenous flora before it disappears to always, encouraged in large part by
the pharmaceutical companies. But at the same time, traditional medicine
continues to be discriminated against by some allopathic doctors who do not take it
seriously and believe that it has no validity and is based only on "superstition".
Traditional medicine faces other dangers besides the disappearance of medicinal
plants, which I have spoken about elsewhere (Gubler, 1991; 1995; 1997; 2001),
such as the death of its practitioners and the problem of their succession, the lack
of interest and belief on the part of young people, harassment by evangelicals
regarding all kinds of traditions they call "bad", and a growing "homogenization"
or "hybridization" of traditional medicine. The latter is largely due to greater
communication among healers through the creation of herbalist meeting centers
where recipes, plants, etc. are exchanged. While such gatherings instill in the
healers a new sense of the importance of their work and self-esteem (which they
have long lacked), and help to breathe new life into traditional medicine in general,
they also make profound changes when the herbal knowledge of one another is
exchanged and mixed. Also contributing to this transformation are the trips abroad
that are being encouraged to bring together healers from various areas, both
nationally and internationally. They necessarily return changed in one way or
another. But, in my opinion, they are mostly endangered by the growing
"modernization" and the consequent loss of faith.
Here we have discussed some aspects of traditional Yucatecan medicine, the role
of the healer as caregiver of the physical and psychic health of his or her patient,
focusing in particular on religion and ritual as fundamental and indispensable
components of traditional medicine.

COLOMBIA
D uring the long and complex process of building Colombian society,
indigenous, mestizo and Afro-descendant populations have built the
most diverse settlements and rural villages and Historically, they have
given rise to curative and preventive practices, treatments and medicines as a result
of their relationship with the ecosystems of their respective territories in response
to diseases, epidemics and, in general, pathologies that have emerged in their
territories in the medium and long term. It is very important for us to deepen,
rescue and understand this memory since even today many places in our country,
municipalities, villages and paths do not have hospital medical attention, so
popular medicine is the only current alternative, the result of other regional
specialists about the meeting of these regional specialists that was promoted in the
population of Guapi, in the Caucasian Pacific and whose memories we have
rescued, systematized and analyzed as the reader can appreciate in this article. The
systematized and transmitted wisdom by the groups in reference. The
understanding of these therapeutic systems allows us, at the same time, to know
the complex belief systems of the populations, commonly characterized by taboos
and cultural conceptions that are the result of long traditions and/or the invention
of "new traditions" that have emerged as a consequence of "mestizaje" and/or, in
more general terms, of the miscegenation of strong external influences or, simply,
of the result of drastic ecological and socio-spatial changes.
Today, as the world has seen the emergence of major ecological movements for the
conservation and sustainable use of resources, the valuable heritage of indigenous
peoples has begun to be recognized. However, this recognition is sometimes
partial, ambiguous, and exclusive, since, as some researchers have pointed out, in
popular medicine indigenous cures and techniques are sought and respected by
"whites," while Indians are despised as a culture and a human group (Gómez
2008). It is essential to highlight that in a context like the current one, in which the
privatization of health and the commodification of medicines are imposed (which
aims to convert popular medical knowledge into private patents), popular remedies
that are the product of long therapeutic experiences that commonly incorporate
"natural elements" with favorable empirical results have been increasingly
disregarded. In other words, popular medicine compromises deep traditions and
knowledge whose usefulness and effectiveness are still in force today, but it is
increasingly exposed to disappear due to multiple causes, especially by the private
interests of national and multinational companies.
In most of the territories that make up the vast geography of the national territory,
traditional medical knowledge and practices are still preserved. The Pacific is a
melting pot of cultures that comprises since the first contacts between native
groups and Africans brought, as slaves, under the ignominious system of
trafficking. For this reason, in this article we propose to highlight and recover the
variety and richness of black medicine in this region, which incorporates ancestral
African knowledge and traditional indigenous knowledge.

TREATMENTS, PROCEDURES AND MEDICINES

ORIGIN OF THE DISEASES

F or the inhabitants of these municipalities, the origin of some illnesses is

due to acts of witchcraft, conditions caused by spirits, frights, envy, the
evil eye or the imbalance between the cold and the hot of the body. Other
illnesses such as some maternal and infant diseases are due to neglect during
periods of "diet" or nursing.
Envy represents a constant concern for the community, because of this feeling
some people resort to perjury, by introducing substances and objects inside the
body. Similarly, the presence of some supernatural beings can affect the health and
even the life of the inhabitants. Finally, it is considered that illnesses can come
from the loss of balance between cold and heat, so it is necessary to identify in the
person's urine the "origin" of their condition to determine how to proceed. To know
if the disease comes from cold or heat, a drop of oil is added to the patient's urine,
if the drop spreads over the urine, the disease comes from heat, if it does not
spread, the disease comes from cold. The color of urine is also taken into account:
if the urine is raw and white, the disease is cold and if the urine is more red and
concentrated, it is hot.
GENERAL DISEASES AND HEALING PROCESSES
Based on the specialties of black medicine outlined above, below are the
classifications of diseases and treatments that are performed for healing, with the
plants and procedures used, starting with the general conditions, and then continue
with the ailments caused by snake bites.
WOMEN'S DISEASES
In this category are grouped the ailments related to menstrual cramps, difficulties
in pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum and treatments to improve the situation of
breastfeeding women.
Stupor: is a disease produced by humidity and by getting cold when stepping on
cement or going to the cemetery in the period immediately following a birth or
diet, which keeps cold in your bones. This situation generates absence of menstrual
periods, weakness and headache. The treatment is done by cooking rosemary,
chamomile, borage, quinigua, canchalagua, a "portion" of castor oil, one of castor
oil and one of ordinary cooking oil. The woman must sit on a container into which
the preparation has been poured and must receive the steam from the water, while
she covers herself in order to sweat. Later, she must extract a little water, to which
panela is added so that it is consumed at the same time that it receives the heat.
To benefit the mothers, it is considered that the altamisa, called the mother of all
the herbs, contains a great virtue if it is consumed after cooked in wine. Similarly,
the cooking of ash wood or equinox removes colicky pains and mother's disease.
Likewise, for women who have difficulties with childbirth, it is indicated that the
use of this post on the belly will help them to give birth.
Ailments due to menstruation or postpartum obstructions are also called "gate
pain" and are treated with the following preparations:
- Two ounces of iron filings (not moldy), two ounces of rue dust and half an ounce
of honey, which is enough to form
a fairly thick soup that must be eaten three times a day, in doses of one drachma.2
- Iron filings that are not mouldy and sugar, one ounce of each, half aniseed
powder; it is divided into twenty-four parts, which are taken three times a day, one
hour before eating.
- Fry in oil or in butter of marrano, alhucema without burning and wet in this, a
cloth of anascoste (sic) or other that is black and sprinkle him a little of alhucema.
Fold the cloth so that the hallucema is inside and put it on the damage, as hot as the
woman can stand it, in the morning, leaving a little time to rest and reapply it
several times.
DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM
Throwing: This condition presents two situations, "a pa'arriba" that corresponds to
vomiting and "a pa' abajo" that refers to diarrhea, sometimes with blood.
Fixed: constipation. For this difficulty, the treatment consists of preparing a
purgative with castor oil. Manence with fruit salt and senna off.
For the cleaning of the digestive system is recommended to drink the juice of the
altamisa in wine, on an empty stomach.
To determine the quantities of the remedies I have used the measure of sixteen
ounces, ounce, half ounce, grams, scruples and drachmas. The grain is the weight
of a grain of barley, twenty-four grains make one es-crupe or seventy-two grains
make one drachma; eight drachma make one ounce and sixteen ounces make one
pound. Each sugar has four quarts or four pounds; half a sugar is two pounds or
two quarts; the quarts weigh one pound or sixteen ounces; the drop is the smallest
part, which can be made from a liquid; the spoon is what contains a regular spoon,
the size of a silver spoon and is regulated by half an ounce; the glass is usually
regulated by half a quart, but here it is to be understood, by three or four ounces;
the tomato is the weight of a Castilian royal. It must be taken into account that in
the Colombian Pacific, established and widespread weight measurements are still
used since colonial times. In such a way that whoever uses these measures should
look for their equivalents in the current system
For stomach cramps, the bark of the ash tree is used, in an infusion of water or
wine.
Tabardillo: this disease is diagnosed when the person who comes has a bad smell
in the mouth and difficulties to defecate. Its treatment consists of drinking the
water resulting from the cooking of the ash tree bark, which will cause the patient
to sweat, the main step for him/her to heal. Andanas: the community defined them
as "knots in the walls of the anus that hurt and bleed to make the stool. They give
pain in the back and itch. That is, what we know as hemorrhoids. When these are
inflamed is called "pain of the andanas".
Cholera or angry mood: Refers to a state of discomfort in which indigestion,
constipation and moodiness are present. To alleviate this ailment it is
recommended to prepare vomitories in the following way: for delicate people to
whom the consumption of these preparations does not make them effect, but on the
contrary, they aggravate the situation more, they are convenient soft vomitories
like those that are obtained by the cooking of two parts of water and a half, part of
honey of bees with a little bit of vinegar. At the moment of ingesting it, a quarter of
eating oil (kitchen) should be added on top, after half an hour, more or less, the
patient should induce the vomit with the fingers in the mouth or, a feather from the
wing of the hen, before soaked in eating oil, which will generate vomit. Only after
four hours can food be ingested again.
With the juice of the roots of the radishes, half an ounce or something more and of
oximiel, half an ounce and a quarter of clear broth of a chicken or of meat, without
any salt the patient can vomit after half an hour of consumed.
Another vomitory is achieved by cooking half an ounce of the seeds of any of the
following plants or species: radishes, bredos (sic), nettle or mustard, slightly
crushed in a quarter and a half of water, until there is less than a quarter left, strain
it through a cloth and put two or three spoonfuls of honey or sugar syrup, with a
little vinegar and drink it quickly. To make it more effective, before drinking it, add
a little bit of eating oil.
To vomit gently you can also use the patagüey herb or sweet almond oil3 with hot
water or hot orange blossom water, with a sugar lump. A very effective
vomitorium, is made by cooking half or one ounce of tobacco in a quart of water,
adding a little honey or sugar and strained through a cloth, drink it on an empty
stomach.
It is indicated that when one wants to evacuate by vomit the phlegm or the
pituitary, which is commonly found at the bottom of the stomach, it is better to
give the vomit on an empty stomach; but when one intends to evacuate the cholera
or the choleric humor it is convenient, before taking the vomit, to have drunk, a
little before, a lot of broth without salt or another ordinary drink, in good quantity
so that the cholera swims on it and in this way it locks up (sic) more easily, and the
acrimony of the cholera is removed.
ORAL DISEASES
The remedies used to cure and avoid pain in the teeth consist of cleaning the teeth
with the ash stick. For children who are teething, chewing on this stick speeds up
the process and relieves the pain.
DISEASES OF THE CIRCULATORY SYSTEM
Heart oppression: sensation of pain in the heart and head, feeling strongly the pulse
there.
Swollen veins: to cure the veins, the filing of the ash wood is swallowed, with
sugar and wine in the form of pills.
DISEASES OF THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM
Agallon: sore throat, difficulty swallowing, hoarseness. Sometimes there is fever,
dryness of the mucous membranes and little salivation. It is usually treated with
lemon water gargle.
Rock-rock: a noise heard when breathing, accompanied by fever, cough, pain and
blocked nasal passages.
Regordas: force that takes the air out of the stomach, produces discomfort and
generates noise when it comes out.
EPIDERMAL DISEASES
Seven fights: skin sprout that if you scratch it fills with pus. Chunche: scratching
caused by insect bites.
Trunk: by blow, sting, stick or fish taunt it becomes red, hot, plump and watery.
Scabs: scabs. They heal with the application of honey.
Ash wood water is applied against stone sickness and erysipelas. Sores washed
with this water and put on it, heal the skin, as well as the application of the powder
of this stick on a wound.
KIDNEY DISEASES
Liquid retention is treated with a tobacco drink in wine and ash wood. For "stone
sickness" or pebbles in the bladder, altamisa cooked in wine, or white wine cooked
with ash wood, is used, which also serves to eliminate urine retention. For people
who are unable to urinate, a poultice is also made from a mixture of ox dung and
honey, which when placed warm on the lower abdomen helps to urinate.
OTHER DISEASES, ILLNESSES AND CURES
Scare: loss of the soul, of the spirit. For healing, one drinks fresh water mixed with
vinegar, to spread blood.
Thrust: it is recommended to receive the smoke of incense grains, up to three
times. Gallic pain: in the head, arm, leg or jaw. Cook two ounces of bramble, in
small pieces, with a fist of good grass, until the water is inked to take it. Add a
tomin of weight from powder of cinchona husk and you should drink it at five or
six o'clock in the morning, for five or seven days in a row, trying to tuck yourself
in by if any sweat comes.
Bumps and falls: drink serum cooked with honey, sangria, and for the old people
who fall off their feet, it is good to bleed it in small quantity and repeatedly. The
hot water cooked with lemon balm and honey, three in three hours and make the
person walk, without fatigue, eat little, do moderate exercise and purge in the
following ways:
- Three ounces of manna and twenty grams of nitro, in twenty ounces of serum.
- Two branches of senna and a half of nitro, which will have in infusion for a while
in a glass of boiling mauve and later, it is strained and taken.
- Two ounces of manna and a half of Sterlitz salt, in the absence of this, the
common one.
- Cream of Tartar, reduced to a very subtle powder, one ounce divided into eight
equal doses.
Breakages: take the olive gum and, well ground, add a little turpentine from the
common one, only what is enough, that is not too soft, kneading it with the gum,
on the same patch that has to be put on the breakage. It is recommended to use the
skin of a glove that is like a real eight and put it on the break or hole and bandage it
well, take it a month and keep eating oil, taking care with the bandage every day.
Tanquenio plaster is unique for breaks and so on. Do not get too full with food or
drink, avoid all shouting, strong or violent exercise, lifting weights, jumping or
screaming and the like. In particular, you need this cure of good ligature or of
brengueros (sic) adjusted and reduced the guts, for inside the body, to apply on the
same place, where they enter or they leave the guts, a plaster that they call ad
returun that there is in the apothecaries or, in its place, to take of the dust of the
weld with weld and to knead it, with very little turpentine and to apply it lying
down, on a patch of chamois, of the size of a real of eight, to the same place where
they entered the guts again and to tie or squeeze.
Take two handfuls of barley flour, a handful of soaked wheat bran, two ounces of
pink oil or fresh butter washed and watered down with wine to reduce. Apply in
form of a warm plaster, on the swollen part and on the groins, because it digests,
repels and comforts

PURGES AND HELPS

PREPARATIVE SYRUP, FOR PHLEGM OR PITUITARY HUMOR

J oin of the pink skin, two parts and one of the oximiel, of this mixture you
drink three or four spoonfuls and then you drink the infusion of water with
any of the following plants: oregano, good grass, chamomile, thyme,
pennyroyal, sage4 or culantrillo of well. These syrups must be drunk two or three
times a day, in the morning in fasting and one hour before eating or four or five
hours after eating; the days to continue the consumption of the syrup will be,
according to more or less renitence of the pituitary humor, approximately two,
three or four days in a row. For lack of pink honey and oximiel can be used in the
same way, taking for each time, one or two tablespoons of virgin honey (which is
the bee), with one or two tablespoons of sour orange juice or vinegar. In the
absence of the honey, it will replace the honeydew.
PURGING FOR PITUITARY OR PHLEGMATIC MOOD
The senna leaf gently purges the phlegm, taking (in which they are easy to work
with) the weight of a tomato, without the sticks that it usually has, ground into
powder and sifted, mixed with cooked oregano water or with other of the
mentioned herbs, for the syrups, or in a cup or bowl of clear broth, without salt or
butter or in a cup of clear chocolate without atole or flour; In more robust people in
whom the syrups are slow to work, you can take the powder of the senna leaf, take
the same amount of one and a half or two tomatoes or, instead of the senna leaf,
take the same amount or the same weight of the milk of the mechoacán or the
jalapa.
GENTLE AND SAFE PURGING, FOR DELICATE PEOPLE
Take the senna leaf, without the sticks, the weight of one tomato or one and a half
tomatoes or, being more effective, take the weight of two tomatoes and good grass
or a handful of oregano, or some aniseed grains or a cinnamon stick, all wet or
broken, mix it in an infusion, in boiling water, half a quart or something else, and
let it rest in a well covered pot for one night, in a warm place. In the morning, after
boiling it over a gentle fire, it is squeezed through a cloth and strained, and an
ounce or two of pink or bee honey or a lump of sugar is added, and then it is
convenient to boil it again, to skim it and strain it, to drink it at once, on an empty
stomach.
You can add and stir it before drinking it, the weight of half a tomín of jalapa
powder; for those who are easy to transfer the purges, put a wet cloth in cold water,
in the hole of the throat, under the nut or tickle the soles of the feet.
To evacuate the phlegm of the head, the stomach or other parts
- It takes mauve, bledo, verbena, chamomile, rue, clover, oré- gano, good grass,
grass of the swallow, of anyone of
these herbs, two or three fists. Only from the mauves, from the ble-two or from the
clover it is always convenient to take more of the others and to add a fist of aniseed
or fennel seed and also, it is very good the saffron seed of the poor, which in Latin
is called cartamus, everything that can be taken with the first three fingers. Also,
one can add the weight of a tomato of the acíbar or, for lack of it, a leaf of tobacco
or a fist of toxí, that is the visco or league that grows in the trunk of the en- cinos,
to cook them all, in three quartillos of water, until a quart or more of the water is
consumed, strain it and then add pink or bee honey or, in the absence of it, two or
three ounces of bread or ordinary honey, a spoonful of salt and one or two ounces
of oil or butter.
- Take the necessary quantity of honey water from the maguey and oil and butter,
the quantity as of an egg, a spoonful of salt and also, some dust from the sapote's
bone.
- Take two ounces or half a bowl of cow or ram gall, mix it with mallow, clover or
bledos, a spoonful of salt and one or two ounces of oil or butter, mix everything.
- It is made by cooking a fist of bran, with the herbs said in the first aid and add
boys' urine. In the tail a part of soap and a piece of the panocha or panela burned,
later a little salt and butter is added.
- Knowing, in enough urín of boy, an almond of zapote or a good fist of the grass
swallow and a fist of tobacco until it is of the baking something more than a
quarter, to strain it and to add him one or two ounces of oil or of butter and another
part of the honey or of the panelas. Such aid is effective, to evacuate the firaldados
(sic) and the phlegm.

OTHER PREPARATIONS

HOW TO BURN THE LEAD AND MAKE IT DUST

T ake the desired amount of lead, melt it in an ordinary way and add, little
by little, ground salt and always mix it with an iron until all the lead turns
to dust. This powder is then washed in several waters, until there is no
taste of salt left, it is dried in the sun and then ground and sifted for use.
PREPARATION OF STEEL FOR MELANCHOLIC FUMES
You file the steel, very subtly, and put it in a glass or glassware, in a hot place, and
pour for fifteen days strong vinegar, and from this steel, so dry and prepared, you
give on an empty stomach in broth or in some preserve, the weight of half real,
provided that later, you do some exercise.
Another way of using the cure of steel is to drink for two or three months, by
ordinary drink, in this way: one takes fine filing of steel, two or three ounces, puts
it in infusion in two quarts of white wine of grapes, and leaves it in a glass or
glassy glass, in a warm place; if it dries, one adds again white wine, the same
quantity that would have been consumed, for six or seven days. Take half a quart
of this wine and mix it with four or six quarts of water cooked with taray. The
quantity of this water will be added, in more or less quantity, according to the
patient, more or less abstemious of the wine, he will drink it by ordinary drink.
When this portion of drink is finished, another half quartile of steel wine will be
taken and with the same portion of water, continuing, with making new infusions
of steel and the rest, for one, two or three months, using in the intermediate the
pills of the three ingredients or the purges of the senna leaf or others and while
using of the steel wine, to walk in house or in the field.
The best way to prepare the steel and with more art is to extend some long rods of
steel, of thickness of a feather cannon or something more, this is heated, by cabo5
in the forge, until it has the temper as much or stronger, as when they want boiler
and so on, Two or three sticks are soon taken out of the forge and are touched well,
with the tips of them, against a good piece of sulfur, which, is kept on a box or
basin of cold water and in it, will fall in the form of drops, the melted steel;
Whatever is left of the wands is reheated and repeated in the same way, until the
steel has gone too far, in drops that fall into the water. The melted steel is taken and
washed in several waters, until it is well clean and then it is dried and ground very
subtly, on a painter's stone or in a mortar and thus it is well prepared for the use of
the sick, in the following way: Take from this prepared steel, from the powder of
the senna leaves, from the powder of rhubarb of each, half an ounce, from the fine
ground cinnamon, the weight of one tomin and from the sulfur, the weight of half a
tomin; all well swirled, it will be incorporated with four ounces of the rose
preserve or borage f lor, or the meat of the apples or peaches, and in this way, it
will be taken for fifteen continuous days or more, in quantity of two or three
tomines, the weight each day, three hours before and it is recommended to walk in
those days, in the field or in the house.
It is recommended to take a walk in the countryside or at home on those days. Take
half an ounce of this prepared steel and of the preparation of alkermes, the weight
of two tomines of the fine ambergris, which weigh fifteen grams of barley, of the
fine tablets of mouth well swirled, four ounces, mix or incorporate everything in a
mortar and to form again of such mass other tablets, of the weight of two tomines
and to take every morning one of them, three hours before eating and to walk later.
Note that while taking these pills and there is no good diet of the stomach, it is
advisable in the intermediate, use some purguillas, aids or calillas.
We take blonde fish, turpentine and unsalted butter and wet tallow. Of these four
things you take equal parts and melt them on fire and even hot, they slip through.
For hot soil, two ounces of wax will be added and this is used, in the form of a
patch, to heal old wounds or sores.
TRACHENIUM PLASTERS
Take a pound of oil, either rolled or eaten, heat it over a low heat and add four
ounces of shredded soap, if it is Castile-based, it is better. When it is melted, add
four ounces of albayalde and another four of azarón (sic) and cook everything, at a
very low heat, moving it continuously with a wooden spatula, until it becomes a
plaster, of an ingrown or white color and when it is warm, add one ounce of
camphor dissolved in liquor. At the same time as it melts or in the same oil of
eating or pink, you can put the camphor and, finally, you can add the eau-de-vie.
If it is used for sores or wounds, some burnt alum can be added. It is good for gout,
for breaks, as well as bones and groin. For bizards in women, for tumors, for
dislocated and disconcerted bones.
RED WATER
To six liters of quicklime, add twenty-six pounds of good water and after it boils,
stir it well, with a spatula, leave it up to twenty-four hours and keep the water
clear. Twenty-three pounds of water are added to the lime again, and after twenty-
four hours, this second water is stored, separated from the first. For the third time,
nineteen pounds of water will be poured into the lime, and after twenty-four hours,
the water will be taken out, like the previous one, and stored, all three waters
separated, well conditioned. And this water shall be taken out and broken up, and
shall be kept for healing, malignant ulcers and more, if they are Gallic and applied
to the burn. At four and a half pounds of the first water, two ounces of corrosive
sublimated mercury, well chopped and passed through a thick sieve, should be
poured several times in mortar, until the ink has been released and these white
powders remain, which should be thrown away and into the red water, six or eight
ounces of good liquor should be poured and the water kept well covered, in double
files. With this water, wet some wipes and they will be put on the ulcers.
OINTMENT FOR HEALING WOUNDS, APOSTHEMS, TUMORS AND
SORES
Take half a pound of cooking oil, three and a half ounces of albayalde, one ounce
of myrrh and three ounces of new white wax. First put the oil in a casserole and
when it boils, put the albayalde, without ceasing to shake and when it boils again,
put the myrrh and then the wax, until it sets, without ceasing to shake. You can
take it out and keep it, because it can be kept for years. It is applied with a patch of
skin, even if it is a glove, and if the wound passes from part to part, rinsing well
the blood, a patch is put on each hole and no other healing is needed, as long as the
wound is not fatal.
SNAKE BITE CURE
Without a doubt the work of snakebite healers or curanderos is very important for
the inhabitants of the region, not only because of the difficulties of the health
system to respond to these situations, but also because it represents the great
knowledge that black communities have about snakes, their poisons and the plants
that are necessary for the healing of those affected. Professor Edmundo Quimbayo
tells us about the case of Adriano Castro, a curator of bites in Guapi, who in his
training process had the participation and influence of the black and indigenous
communities of the Caucasian Pacific coast. He had his first experience of healing
as a patient:
He was at work in San Francisco when he was bitten by a carving
The Indian Salvador told him that he would take away his fear of snakes. He
captured the snake, took off its head and tail, hung it up to bleed it out and then cut
open its belly, took out its gall, placed it in Adriano's palm, broke it open and told
him to drink it and then take three sips of water as well. Adriano did so and from
that day on he lost his fear of snakes and also learned his first lesson in curing
snake bites.
This experience indicates the main way in which people who have been attacked
can be cured. The second way derives from the impossibility of capturing the
snake, so one must act from the use of
the "cured bottle "7 , which consists of a bottle of aguardiente to which plants are
added that are used to prevent the effects of the poison. The plants used by Castro
to cure snake bites were: resucitadora, san pedro and san pablo, palillo, bejuquillo,
bejuco culebrina, atajasangre, la chupachupa and lanica. These plants were used to
counteract the effects of the poisons of all the snakes that attack the population,
which are mainly the mapaná, the twenty-four, the birri (typical of the Cauca), the
size x, the coral, the verrugosa and the guacara.
The third form of healing is achieved by "binding" the snake. It is a ritual that is
performed with a dead snake, tying it around the neck for a few seconds and then
over the place where the patient was attacked. Afterwards, the patient must
indicate in which direction the snake moved away, towards the sun or towards the
night. If the snake went toward the sun, it will return to that same spot to drink
water. But as a result of tying it up symbolically, the snake will not be able to drink
water on its return, but will die at the site where it attacked.
The way in which the alternate physician can know the severity of the attacked is
by trying to take the patient's pulse in the following order: first on the wrist, if it is
not perceived, try the elbows, then the armpits, the temple, the ankle and finally the
forehead, as it advances, the patient's severity increases.
It is in a very high state of poisoning and healing is complicated, so it is necessary
that the first procedure is carried out within twenty-four hours. After the first part
of the curing process is done, we proceed to blow liquor from the cured bottle on
the crown of the head, then in the ears and finally in the eyes, which must burn as a
sign that the poison has been "scared off".
Sometimes people bitten by snakes develop gangrene or are "stagnant" by the
poison, for this case the healer goes in the opposite direction three streets and
collects in each one of them a small ball of mud, to which he adds a little liquor
from the cured bottle. This mixture is applied to the whole body of the patient, so
that it "catches on to the fever", which will cause shivers and sweating. Then he
must ingest a purgative made from the cooking of the herbs used for snakebite or
guarapillo, mixed with seven sachets of fruit salt and glover salt, so the patient can
expel the poison that is in his body. One difficulty that the healer encounters when
trying to expel the venom from a patient is that the patient has had sexual relations
the day before the bite, so it is necessary for the woman with whom the affected
person has been to bathe her genitals and collect the water, and then bathe the
patient, and prevent the plants used from losing their healing strength. For this
circumstance it is recommended that the person who goes to the mount tries not to
have sexual relations, to avoid that in case of bite the plants do not cause effect to
him or, that in case of
who has them, perform the procedure of the bath, because it is a protector.
Another way to cure bottles according to the data obtained by the Apostolic
Prefecture of Guapi is from the gathering of plants such as guaco, bejuco pildé8
and canelón (which are another variety of guaco), manqueté, flor de la zaragoza,
guayabo and ruda de monte. It is considered that the first actions that an attacked
person can do if the healer cannot assist immediately, is to take guaco or ayapana
leaves, rub them with his hand, then bite them and then put them on the wound.
Afterwards, a bandage should be made from the guaco stem, while the healer
arrives.
According to the healers Emérita Hurtado and Julio Joaquín Rojas, in the paths of
Santa Rosa de Saija, the healing process is carried out with the use of guaco (the
leaf is used for the pando - temple - and the stem for the bath), pig's trunk (it is put
in cross when the cure is being done), charde (to cover the foot, if the bite comes
from a snake of the region), yatevide (for the cure and the bath) and clavito.
The healing process is done in nine steps:
1. The patient must drink from the cured or crying bottle.
2. The healer blows the crown and temples.
3. He should bathe the affected part, massaging and clapping. Then the sign of the
cross is made.
4. The healer blows the contents of the cured bottle over the affected region.
5. Two bands are placed, one of guaco and another of cured cocedera.
6. The cure is placed over the wound.
7. Cover with sheets of charde, tapaculo or Santamaria.
8. Secure with a cloth.
9. This cure is left for two or three hours, depending on the patient's condition.
The shots of the cured bottle, plasters and baths are made two or three times a day,
preferably at night to prevent "bad back" of people who want to prevent the
healing period.
Generally, the healing period takes two or three days.
The same healers point out that when you are bitten by a snake and the healer is
not present, you should macerate
three feet of stem onion, add a foot of guineo, liquor or warm water and consume
this mixture. Later the attacked one should make a bath with the same preparation,
to which a foot of guápil, one of black Dominican and lemon is added. When the
wound is dry, iodoform and calomé should be applied.
To be able to identify what type of snake bit the patient, the pulse is taken, because
"every poison has its jump". When the bite to be healed is from a rotting snake, it
is customary not to tell anyone, although this indication can be applied to all types
of snakes
Before beginning the healing process and the baths, a drink is prepared with blood
clotting leaves, crushing the red part, which is then put in water or liquor, after
heating is given to drink the patient the measure of a little finger, if it does not stop
the bleeding, should be given to drink water with ginger.
For the baths they are used herbs like llorona, good grass, chupachupa, tongue of
cow, dry love, cordoncillo, pelucito and guaco. They are cooked and after a short
period of rest the bath is done.
This preparation has the particularity of extracting the venom from the bites of
poisonous snakes and insects. If there is no bleeding, a small incision is made,
enough for some blood to come out. With the little bit of blood that comes out, the
stone adheres to the skin and extracts the venom. It falls out when the skin heals,
usually between 20 and 30 hours. The first person who was cured in Guapi was in
the hospital and had already been evicted by the doctor.
How it's done: the cow's leg is taken the same day it's killed, the second day at the
most. The bone is cleaned well and cut with a saw in pieces of 2 inches long and 1
inch wide. They are worked so that they are flat underneath and more oval on top,
slicing the edges to facilitate handling. They are put in the oven until the fire they
fire is blue. It is already charcoal, it is already the "black stone". It is used as
explained at the beginning.
When it has been detached from the bite, it is boiled for half an hour in water and
left in milk for two hours. It is then washed and dried in the sun. It is now ready to
be served.
These are the previous procedures, which are mainly used in the Colombian
Pacific coast, specifically in the Cauca region, for the extraction and healing of
snake bites, knowledge and work that due to their effectiveness have become
important and recognized practices by the population of the area.
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