Mesoamerican Experiences Of Illness And Healing

The sixteenth-century encounter between Mesoamericans and Europeans resulted in a tremendous loss of life in indigenous communities and significantly impacted their health and healing strategies. Contributors to this special issue of Ethnohistory address how indigenous people experienced bodily health in the wake of this encounter. By exploring archival indigenous and Spanish-language documents, contributors address how bodily health was experienced in the wake of the European encounter and uncover transformations of health discourses and experiences of illness. They investigate eclectic healing practices and medical chants; changing notions of the causes of illnesses; and the language of cleansing ceremonies, bone-setting, midwifery, and maternal medicine. Contributors. Sabina Cruz de la Cruz, Rebecca Dufendach, Servando Hinojosa, Timothy W. Knowlton, Gabrielle Vail, Edber Dzidz Yam

Healing practices in Mesoamerica span a wide range, from traditional folk medicine with roots reaching back into the prehispanic era to westernized biomedicine. These sometimes cooperating, sometimes competing practices have attracted attention from researchers and the public alike, as interest in alternative medicine and holistic healing continues to grow. Responding to this interest, the essays in this book offer a comprehensive, state-of-the-art survey of Mesoamerican healers and medical practices in Mexico and Guatemala. The first two essays describe the work of prehispanic and colonial healers and show how their roles changed over time. The remaining essays look at contemporary healers, including bonesetters, curers, midwives, nurses, physicians, social workers, and spiritualists. Using a variety of theoretical approaches, the authors examine such topics as the intersection of gender and curing, the recruitment of healers and their training, healers' compensation and workload, types of illnesses treated and recommended treatments, conceptual models used in diagnosis and treatment, and the relationships among healers and between indigenous healers and medical and political authorities.

The purpose of this study was to explore and understand the clinical relevance of ancient Mesoamerican healing practices with the overall aim of creating a hybrid model of psychotherapy. This study utilized Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to interview three Toltec healing practitioners about their lived experiences, including their perspectives on healing, illness, spirituality, and psychological suffering. The analysis revealed four superordinate themes and three superordinate themes. These themes, which included both indigenous worldviews and specific ritual and ceremonial healing practices, were utilized to envision a hybrid model of psychotherapy. This hybrid model of psychotherapy incorporates both traditional healing practices and contemporary Western psychological interventions, but ultimately leaves the direction of the therapy to the client. It was also recommended that the impact of colonialism on identity and cultural heritage be discussed in the therapeutic context, as well as possibilities for reclaiming parts of one's heritage that my have been lost due to acculturation and colonialism.

Ethnic minorities underutilize mental health services, and when they do seek treatment, dropout rates are high. The need for culturally sensitive therapies that incorporate the spiritual values of the minority client cannot be overstated.Authors Ricardo Carrillo, PhD, and Concepcion Martinez Saucedo, PhD, argue that traditional Mesoamerican healing approaches to mental health issues can and should be used by a wide variety of health care practitioners and those in supportive roles, including psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers.In Cultura y Bienestar: MesoAmerican Based Healing and Mental Health Practice Based Evidence, these two experts discuss the efficiency and potential of such traditional practices as Mexican curanderismo, medicina papalote (butterfly medicine), and medicinal drumming.Traditional healing practices view the physical, the mental, and the spiritual as a unified system-unlike the Western approach to mental health and its tendency toward reductionist, symptom-based treatment. Mesoamerican healing also places the patient within the larger context of the community.What Carrillo and Saucedo suggest is nothing less than a revolution in mental health services, blending allopathic care and traditional healing with Western methodologies to create a culturally inclusive care system that acknowledges and respects the spiritual values of minority clients.

A tutorial on the ancient practice of limpias to heal the mind, body, and soul • Offers step-by-step instructions for the practice of limpias, shamanic cleansing rituals to heal, purify, and revitalize people as well as physical spaces • Examines different types of limpia ceremonies, such as fire rites for transformation, water rites for cleansing and influencing, and sweeping rites for divination • Explores the sacred stories behind limpia rituals and traces these curanderismo practices to their indigenous roots Exploring the essential tools and practices of Mesoamerican shamans and curanderos, specifically the ancient Yukatek Maya and Mexica (Aztec), Erika Buenaflor, M.A., J.D., provides a step-by-step guide for conducting the most common practice within curanderismo: limpias. These practical and incredibly effective shamanic cleanses heal, purify, and revitalize people and spaces with herbs, flowers, eggs, feathers, fire, and water. They are also powerful tools for self-empowerment, spiritual growth, soul retrieval, rebirth, and gracefully opening up pathways for new beginnings. Drawing on her 20 years’ experience as a curandera and her graduate studies focused on Mesoamerican shamanism, the author traces modern curanderismo practices to their indigenous roots. She explores the sacred stories behind limpia rituals and examines different types of limpia ceremonies in depth, such as fire rites for transformation, water rites for cleansing and influencing, and sweeping rites for divination. She outlines how limpias work holistically to enable one to let go and cleanse the body, mind, and spirit of limiting beliefs, traumas, and broken stories; heal acute and chronic illnesses such as depression, insomnia, and anxiety; and revitalize and activate sacred spaces by renewing their essence and clearing negative energies. She explains the healing properties of the plants used in limpia rites and how to perform the medicinal chants used by the curanderos. In addition, the author details how the practice of platicas, heart-straightening talks, supports limpia rites by encouraging one to vocalize their needs as they eject traumas and unwanted energies from the body, setting the stage for self-awareness and healing. Sharing the story of her own complete healing from a catastrophic injury with limpias as well as inspirational testimonies from others who have experienced limpias, the author provides a personal and thoroughly practical guide to the ancient shamanic method of limpias to promote healing and personal transformation in our times.

The Generations Old Healthcare System Widely Practiced Today...Despite the marvel of modern medicine, Curanderismo remains as relevant to modern medicine as it has done for timeless generations. Originating from Mexican American traditions, this healing art is still widely practiced throughout communities focusing on physical healing as well as spiritual healing through rituals, practices and mores.If you are: -Wanting to connect more with Mexican culture -Looking to deepen your understanding of natural healing-Seeking to further your knowledge to better yourself and other professionally-Or wish to develop personal practices for your own benefitServing as an indispensable guide to health professionals, students of Mexican American culture and to urban ethnologists and medical anthropologists. This book will take a deep dive into Curanderismo, and its vital importance to modern medicine with comprehensive and practical info. The Practice Of Curanderismo Curanderismo is the practice of a Mexican American folk medicine with significant historical importance and utilises healing techniques that are deeply rooted in native Mexican culture. This guide will walk you through how Curanderismo is practiced and how it is taught and passed on as a healing tradition. We will answer questions and reveal why Curanderos stay in high demand alongside the revolutionary and life saving technologies of modern medicine. Included In This Comprehensive Guide To Curanderismo: -Step-by-step instructions for the practice of Limpias, shamanic cleansing rituals to heal, purify, and revitalize people as well as physical spaces-A history on Curanderismo, its relevance, importance and more-Examinations of the multiple types of Limpia ceremonies including fire rites for transformations, water rites for cleansing and influencing, and sweeping rites for divination-Exploring the sacred stories behind Limpia rituals and traces these Curanderismo practices to their indigenous roots -Applications for curanderismo, where these practices are commonly used for healing, their effects and treatments-The unique philosophies that construct Curandisimo, the soul's involvement, strength of one's family, and the deep social connections involved with the tradition.Limpias You will discover and learn about the tools and practices of these shamans so you can conduct the most common practice within Curanderismo: Limpias. With practical and effective applications you'll be able to cleanse, heal, purify and revitalise people and spaces with herbs, flowers, eggs, feathers, fire, and water.But not only will you be able to help those around you but empower yourself, as Limpias are an incredibly powerful tool for spiritual growth, soul retrieval, rebirth, and gracefully opening up pathways for new beginnings.So click add to cart now and discover the most profound remedies for personal, spiritual and professional enlightenmen

"Western approaches to mental health care often fail to effectively treat ethnic minorities and underrepresented populations. This is especially true for clients from Mesoamerican cultures, whose spiritual values are often ignored by well-meaning but culturally insensitive psychotherapists, psychologists, and social workers. Ricardo Carrillo, PhD, and Concepcion Martinez Saucedo, PhD, founders of the Latino early intervention program Cultura y Bienstar, advocate including traditional healing practices into modern mental health care. Spiritually relevant and based on centuries of empirical testing, curanderismo and other Mesoamerican medicinal prqactices offer the culturally competent mental health practitioner the opportunity to successfully engage with underserved populations, increasing both treatment efficiency and client retention rates. From traditional herbal remedies proven effective by scientific testing to therapeutic ritual drumming, Mesoamerican healing practices have much to offer both their own communities and the world at large--powerful healing techniques that public health and mental health services cannot afford to ignore"--Back cover.

Paloma Martinez-Cruz argues that the medicine traditions of Mesoamerican women constitute a hemispheric intellectual lineage that continues to thrive despite the legacy of colonization. Martinez-Cruz asserts that indigenous and mestiza women healers are custodians of a knowledge base that remains virtually uncharted. The few works looking at the knowledge of women in Mesoamerica generally examine only the written—even academic—world, accessible only to the most elite segments of (customarily male) society. These works have consistently excluded the essential repertoire and performed knowledge of women who think and work in ways other than the textual. And while two of the book’s chapters critique contemporary novels, Martinez-Cruz also calls for the exploration of non-textual knowledge transmission. In this regard, the book's goals and methods are close to those of performance scholarship and anthropology, and these methods reveal Mesoamerican women to be public intellectuals. In Women and Knowledge in Mesoamerica, fieldwork and ethnography combine to reveal women healers as models of agency. Her multidisciplinary approach allows Martinez-Cruz to disrupt Euro-based intellectual hegemony and to make a case for the epistemic authority of Native women. Written from a Chicana perspective, this study is learned, personal, and engaging for anyone who is interested in the wisdom that prevailing analytical cultures have deemed “unintelligible.” As it turns out, those who are unacquainted with the sometimes surprising extent and depth of wisdom of indigenous women healers simply haven’t been looking in the right places—outside the texts from which they have been consistently excluded.

A limpia (?cleansing?, in the Spanish language) is a physical?symbolic method, used in the Mesoamerican traditional medical practices, to reach a new balance. The verb «to clean» means «make something or someone free of dirt, mess or defects». When what is removed is visible, the result of ?cleaning? is an objective fact; when, however, the alteration, the defect, the block inside the person is symbolic (?energetic?), the limpia becomes an act of faith, a physical ritual that is a step away from the sacred or the traditional. In fact, according to Mesoamerican natives, the human being is built up also by ?something more? than the body: this is a kind of vital energy that is an integral part of all creatures, and of course the human being. Not specific of Mesoamerican worldview, the ?spiritual vibration? is communicated, with other discursive images, by other ethnic groups coming from all around the world. Mesoamerican people, thus, think that health problems have not only corporal or psychological causes and relations but ?energetic? too. The limpia makes the person connected with itself and with its own environment (biological, community and of cultural beliefs); its purpose is to re?harmonize the person with that environment, removing and expelling from it the elements (physical, psychic, social and ?symbolic?) causing its sickness or influencing it.

“An autobiographical account of how a psychiatric nurse specialist became a folk medicine healer; this also explains the origins and practice of one of the oldest forms of medicine in the New World.″—Kirkus Praise for WOMAN WHO GLOWS IN THE DARK “This is a book that we’ve been awaiting for years—one that unites the best medicine from the ancient past with the deepest needs of the contemporary heart and soul.”—Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D., author of Women Who Run with the Wolves, The Gift of Story, and Faithful Gardener “Elena Avila’s book is a combination manual, memoir, and healing chant. I’m so glad these stories and secrets – which have been known orally by our culture for ages – are finally down on paper.” —Julia Alvarez, author of How the García Girls Lost Their Accents “Avila shatters myths about curanderismo and reminds us that it’s just as important today as it was centuries ago.”—The Austin Chronicle “In this age of impersonal and technologic health care, Elena Avila’s book gives the reader permission to rely on what has all too often been forgotten. Her message—that healing cannot occur without the heart, instincts, wisdom, and compassion of the healer—is given with grace and simplicity.”—Barbara Dossey, R.N., M.S., HNC, FAAN, Director, Holistic Nursing Associates “Truthful, often painful, always riveting, WOMAN WHO GLOWS IN THE DARK reveals how the practices of curanderismo can heal the soul sickness not addressed by Western medicine.”—Rudolfo Anaya, author of Bless Me, Ultima “Grounded in the earth, at home in both modern and indigenous medicine, Elena Avila is a true emissary of healing, casting a brilliant glow into the dark of all medicine that denies the soul. As a human, I cherish Elena’s light. As a psychiatrist, I welcome her insight.”—Judith Orloff, M.D., author of Second Sight and The Genius of Empathy “Avila is entertaining and often humorous...Without climbing on a soapbox, [her] narrative demonstrates what’s missing from most American medical practices, and how many patients could be helped so much more than they are now.”—Kirkus Reviews