Articulation between health services and “indigenous medicine”: Anthropological reflections on policies and reality in Brazil

Abstract

This paper contributes to the dialogue between the social sciences and social medicine in Latin America by exploring therapeutic pluralism in indigenous health policies and services in Brazil. It reviews recent anthropological research, concepts and current debates to critically examine Brazilian indigenous health policy and its concept of "differentiated care," which proposes articulation between official health practices and indigenous therapies. A number of contradictions and tensions are present in the structural organizational of the indigenous health subsystem at the national level and in the daily practices of health teams at the local level. Guided by the hegemonic ideology of biomedicine, health professionals fail to recognize the dynamics and agency expressed in indigenous health practices.

COVID-19 pandemic evolution in the Brazilian Indigenous population

“…The measures showed a beneficial effect on this population health resulting in a reduction in the mortality rate from 7.1% to 4.77%, in the period between 2000 and 2005 [10]. Despite the improvement in the Indigenous assistance, many individuals still refuse their own or the transportation of members of their families to more specialized health centers; for this reason, optimized medical assistance that respect the cultural divergences and traditions of those peoples is required [11]. Concomitantly, equipment, materials, and professionals are scarce, and the difficult access to the health units hampers such assistance [12].…”

A cosmografia Munduruku em movimento: saúde, território e estratégias de sobrevivência na Amazônia brasileira

“…A vastidão da Mundurucânia, ou o país dos Munduruku, está registrada em muitos documentos históricos, isto é, o dimensionamento territorial da Mundurucânia remonta à própria origem e ao aparecimento dos Munduruku aos portugueses, ainda no período colonial. Esse território abrange desde a margem direita do rio Madeira, toda a calha do rio Tapajós, entendendo-se até as savanas em direção à serra do Cachimbo (Arnaud, 1974;Ioris, 2005Ioris, , 2011Leopoldi, 2007;Menéndez, M., 1992;Murphy, R., 1956Murphy, R., , 1958Murphy, R., , 1960Ramos, 2003;Ribeiro, 2002Ribeiro, [1970; Santos, F., 2002Santos, F., , 1995Wolf, 1997).…”

“…Segundo Menéndez, E. (2003Menéndez, E. ( , 2005Menéndez, E. ( , 2009, o setor de saúde deveria compreender e articular-se com o saber local, especificamente com as formas indígenas de autoatenção, para promover serviços mais eficazes. Entretanto, pesquisas recentes no Brasil demonstram que os membros das equipes interdisciplinares que trabalham com povos indígenas ignoram ou desvalorizaram os conhecimentos e as iniciativas indígenas Garnelo, 2017). A mesma situação é encontrada entre os povos Munduruku (Silva, 2011;Scopel, 2013;Dias-Scopel, 2015).…”

Equity, intercultural approaches, and access to information on traditional, complementary, and integrative medicines in the Americas

“…Generating strategies that facilitate access to information is an important means of addressing inequities in health and guiding decision-making for action at several levels. Although TCIM-related scientific output has been growing, it continues to be quite limited ( 11 , 12 ). In academic settings, this output is often published as gray literature, and in many cases is not available electronically.…”