Book description
This account of the practice of traditional Maya medicine examines
the work of curers in Pisté, Mexico, a small town in the Yucatán
Peninsula near the ruins of Chichén Itzá. The traditions of plant use
and ethnomedicine applied by these healers have been transmitted from
one generation to the next since the colonial period throughout the
state of Yucatán and the adjoining states of Campeche and Quintana Roo.
In addition to plants, traditional healers use western medicine and
traditional rituals that include magical elements, for curing in
Yucatán is at once deeply spiritual and empirically oriented,
addressing problems of the body, spirit, and mind. Curers either learn
from elders or are recruited through revelatory dreams. The men who
learn their skills through dreams communicate with supernatural beings
by means of divining stones and crystals. Some of the locals
acknowledge their medical skills; some disparage them as rustics or
vilify them as witches. The curer may act as a doctor, priest, and psychiatrist.
This book traces the entire process of curing. The author collected
plants with traditional healers and observed their techniques
including prayer and massage as well as plant medicine, western
medicine, and ritual practices. Plant medicine, she found, was the
common denominator, and her book includes information on the plants
she worked with and studied.
Marianna Appel Kunow holds a Ph. D. in Latin American Studies. She
teaches Spanish at Southeastern Louisiana University.
