Ethnic Andean Concepts of Health and Illness in the Post-Colombian World and Its Relevance Today

Authors: Elizabeth J. Currie, Fernando Ortega Perez

Abstract:

—‘MEDICINE’ is a new project funded under the EC Horizon 2020 Marie-Sklodowska Curie Actions, to determine concepts of health and healing from a culturally specific indigenous context, using a framework of interdisciplinary methods which integrates archaeological-historical, ethnographic and modern health sciences approaches. The study will generate new theoretical and methodological approaches to model how peoples survive and adapt their traditional belief systems in a context of alien cultural impacts. In the immediate wake of the conquest of Peru by invading Spanish armies and ideology, native Andeans responded by forming the Taki Onkoy millenarian movement, which rejected European philosophical and ontological teachings, claiming “you make us sick”. The study explores how people’s experience of their world and their health beliefs within it, is fundamentally shaped by their inherent beliefs about the nature of being and identity in relation to the wider cosmos. Cultural and health belief systems and related rituals or behaviors sustain a people’s sense of identity, wellbeing and integrity. In the event of dislocation and persecution these may change into devolved forms, which eventually inter-relate with ‘modern’ biomedical systems of health in as yet unidentified ways. The development of new conceptual frameworks that model this process will greatly expand our understanding of how people survive and adapt in response to cultural trauma. It will also demonstrate the continuing role, relevance and use of TM in present-day indigenous communities. Studies will first be made of relevant pre-Colombian material culture, and then of early colonial period ethnohistorical texts which document the health beliefs and ritual practices still employed by indigenous Andean societies at the advent of the 17^th century Jesuit campaigns of persecution - ‘Extirpación de las Idolatrías’. Core beliefs drawn from these baseline studies will then be used to construct a questionnaire about current health beliefs and practices to be taken into the study population of indigenous Quechua peoples in the northern Andean region of Ecuador. Their current systems of knowledge and medicine have evolved within complex historical contexts of both the conquest by invading Inca armies in the late 15^th century, followed a generation later by Spain, into new forms. A new model will be developed of contemporary  Andean concepts of health, illness and healing demonstrating  the way these have changed through time. With this, a ‘policy tool’ will be constructed as a bridhging facility into contemporary global scenarios relevant to other Indigenous, First Nations, and migrant peoples to provide a means through which their traditional health beliefs and current needs may be more appropriately understood and met. This paper presents findings from the first analytical phases of the work based upon the study of the literature and the archaeological records. The study offers a novel perspective and methods in the development policies sensitive to indigenous and minority people’s health needs.

Keywords: Andean ethnomedicine, andean health beliefs, health beliefs models, traditional medicine.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1130457

References:

[1] M. Livi-Bacci, “The Depopulation of Hispanic America after the Conquest”. Population and Development Review, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 199-232, 2006.
[2] L. Newson, Life and Death in Early Colonial Ecuador. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995.
[3] D. H. Ubelaker, “Patterns of Demographic Change in the Americas”. Human Biology vol. 63, no. 3. Special Issue on the Biological Anthropology of New World Populations, pp. 361-379, June 1992
[4] J. Aberth, The First Horseman. Diseases in Human History. Connections: Key Themes in World History. Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007.
[5] S. A. Alchon. Native Society and Disease in Colonial Ecuador. Cambridge, New York, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
[6] C. Brosseder. The Power of Huacas. Change and resistance in the Andean world of colonial Peru. University of Texas Press, Austin, 2014.
[7] R. De Pribyl, “Evidencias medico antropológicas sobre el origen del Pishtaco”. RevistaPeruana de Medicina Experimental y Salud Pública. vol. 27, no 1, pp. 136-137, 2010.
[8] C. Brosseder. The Power of Huacas. Change and resistance in the Andean world of colonial Peru. University of Texas Press: Austin, 2014.
[9] N. Griffiths, The Cross and the Serpent. Religious Repression and Resurgence in Colonial Peru. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996.
[10] S. MacCormack, Religion in the Andes. Vision and Imagination in Early Colonial Peru. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press,1991.
[11] K. Mills, Idolatry and its Enemies. Colonial Andean religion and extirpation, 1640-1750. Princeton: Princeton Academic Press, 1997.
[12] L. Camino, Cerros, plantas y lagunas poderosas: La medicina al norte del 
Perú Lima: Lluvia Editores: Lima, 1992.
[13] R. W. Bussman and D. Sharon. “Traditional medicinal plant use in Northern Peru: tracking two thousand years of healing culture.” Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, Nov. 2006, pp. 2-47.
[14] R. W. Bussman and D. Sharon. “Two decades of ethnobotanical research in Southern Ecuador and Northern Peru”. Ethnobiology and Conservation 2014, 3:3 (12 June 2014) doi:10.15451/ec2014-6-3.2-1-50
[15] P. Stahl, “The Hallucinogenic Basis of Early Valdivia Phase Ceramic Bowl Iconography”. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 105-123, 1985.
[16] ] J. E. Staller and E. J. Currie. Mortuary practices and ritual associations: Shamanic elements in prehistoric funerary contexts in South America. Oxford: Archaeopress,. 2001.
[17] J. G. R. Elferink, “The Inca healer: empirical medical knowledge and magic in pre-Columbian Peru”. Revista de Indias. Vol. 75 no. 264, pp. 323­350, 2015.
[18] R. G. Mendoza, “The Lords of the Medicine Bag: medical science and traditional practice in ancient Peru and South America.” In Medicine Across Cultures. History and Practice of Medicine in Non-Western Cultures edited by Helaine Selin. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003, pp. 225-258.
[19] J. M. López Piñer,. Asclepo: Archivo Iberoamericano de historia de la Medicina y Antropolgia Médica, pp. 3-68 1990.
[20] R. Bye, and E. Linares. 2016. “Ethnobotany and Ethnohistorical Sources of Mesoamerica”. In Ethnobotany of Mexico. Interactions of People and Plants in Mesoamerica. Edited by Rafael Lira, Alejandro Casas, José Blancas, 2016, pp.41-65
[21] J. de Diez Betanzos. Narrative of the Incas. Translated and edited by Roland Hamilton and Daba Buchanan from the Palma de Mallorca manuscript. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996 (1557).
[22] C. de Molina, Cristóbal Relación de las fábulas y ritos de los incas. In Fábulas y mitos de los incas, edited by Henrique Urbano and Pierre Duviols: Historia vol. 16, pp. 6-134, Madrid. 1989.
[23] P. Sarmiento de Gamboa, Historia de los incas. Madrid: Miraguano Ediciones, Ediciones Polifemo, 1988.
[24] F. Salomon, “Shamanism and politics in late colonial Ecuador”. American Ethnologist, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 413-428. 1983
[25] C. Brosseder. The Power of Huacas. Change and resistance in the Andean world of colonial Peru. University of Texas Press, Austin, 2014.
[26] N. Griffiths, The Cross and the Serpent. Religious Repression and Resurgence in Colonial Peru. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996.
[27] R. G. Mendoza, “The Lords of the Medicine Bag: medical science and traditional practice in ancient Peru and South America.” In Medicine Across Cultures. History and Practice of Medicine in Non-Western Cultures edited by Helaine Selin. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003, pp. 225-258.
[28] J. Bastien, “Metaphorical relations between sickness, society, and a land in a Qollahauya ritual”. Chapter 2 in Health in the Andes, edited by Joseph W. Bastien and John M. Donahue. American Anthropological Association, Washington. 1981, pp: 19-37.
[29] G. L. Urioste, “Sickness and Death in Preconquest Andean Cosmology: The Huarochiri Oral Tradition”. Chapter One in Health in the Andes, edited by Joseph W. Bastien and John M. Donahue. Washington: American Anthropological Association, 1981, pp: 9-18.
[30] J. Thomas, “Death, identity and the body in Neolithic Britain”. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute vol. 6, pp. 653-668, 2000.
[31] J. Bastien, “Metaphorical relations between sickness, society, and a land in a Qollahauya ritual”. Chapter 2 in Health in the Andes, edited by Joseph W. Bastien and John M. Donahue. American Anthropological Association, Washington. 1981, pp: 19-37.
[32] J. W. Bastien, Healers of the Andes. Kallawaya Herbalists and their Medicinal Plants. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1987.
[33] C. V. Classen. Inca Cosmology and the Human Body. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1991.
[34] J. Thomas, “Death, identity and the body in Neolithic Britain”. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute vol. 6, pp. 653-668, 2000.
[35] F. Ortega P.,” Ritual and symbolic experiences while living in San Pedro de Casta”. Anthropological field work notes 1979, 1980. Unpublished.
[36] F. Ortega P., Universidad de San Francisco, Quito, Ecuador: “Culture, Nutrition and Health: the case of San Pedro de Casta, Huarochiri, Peru”. 1979-1980. Unpublished MA dissertation.
[37] F. Ortega P.,” Ritual and symbolic experiences while living in San Pedro de Casta”. Anthropological field work notes 1979, 1980. Unpublished.
[38] J. Bastien, “Metaphorical relations between sickness, society, and a land in a Qollahauya ritual”. Chapter 2 in Health in the Andes edited by Joseph W. Bastien and John M. Donahue. American Anthropological Association, Washington. 1981, pp: 19-37
[39] C. Greenway, “Healing soul loss: the negotiation of identity in Peru”. In Joan D. Koss-Chioino, Thomas Leatherman and Christine Greenway Medical Pluralism in the Andes. London and New York: Routledge 2003, pp. 92-106
[40] S. MacCormack, Religion in the Andes. Vision and Imagination in Early Colonial Peru. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press,1991.
[41] N. D. Cook, Born to Die. Disease and New World Conquest, 1492-1650. Cambridge, New York, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
[42] L. Newson, Life and Death in Early Colonial Ecuador. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995.
[43] D. H. Ubelaker, “Patterns of Demographic Change in the Americas”. Human Biology vol. 63, no. 3. Special Issue on the Biological Anthropology of New World Populations, pp. 361-379, June 1992.
[44] S. A. Alchon. Native Society and Disease in Colonial Ecuador. Cambridge, New York, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
[45] S. A. Alchon, A Pest in the Land. New World Epidemics in a Global Perspective. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 2003.
[46] http://www.unesco.org/new/en/santiago/culture/intangible-heritage/convention-intangible-cultural-heritage/
[47] F. Ortega P. Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador, private communication, March 2017.
[48] E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture. Volume 1. London: John Murray, 1958, p. 1.
[49] F. Ortega P., Course modules in Medical Anthropology given at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, 1996-2011. Unpublished.
[50] F. Ortega P. Ciencia Médica Andina. Primera Parte: Las Culturas Médicas Tradicionales. Ciencia Andina 2- Sabiduría y Rescate. CEDECO- Abya-Yala, Quito, 1990, pp. 127-152.