Caida de Mollera: Aztec Sources for a Mesoamerican Disease of Alleged Spanish Origin

Montellano, Bernard Ortiz de

doi:10.2307/482818

Cited by 9 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…In fact, of the five folk illnesses (empacho, mal de ojo, nervios, susto, and mollera caida) we have investigated, susto and mollera caida were not recognized as illnesses in the Hartford, Connecticut, sample of Puerto Ricans. It is interesting to note that these two illnesses are thought to be of pre-Columbian origin (Kay, 1993;Ortiz de Montellano, 1987;Trotter, Ortiz de Montellano, & Logan, 1989). For the folk illnesses reported on here, empacho and mal de ojo, the levels of shared beliefs are lower (.50 and .44, respectively), and the unique beliefs are higher (.07 and .11, respectively) than for the biomedical illnesses (Table 4).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

Intra- and Intercultural Variation in the Definition of Five Illnesses: AIDS, Diabetes, the Common Cold, Empacho, and Mal de Ojo

Weller

Baer

2001

Cross-Cultural Research

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This article assesses the amount of sharing in cultural beliefs. Interviews were conducted with more than 800 informants about the causes, symptoms, and treatments for AIDS, diabetes, the common cold, empacho, and mal de ojo. Interviews were conducted with Puerto Ricans in Connecticut; Mexican Americans in South Texas; Mexicans in Guadalarjara, Mexico; and Guatemalans in rural Guatemala. A strong majority response (> 66%) in each sample for each illness was used to estimate group beliefs about the presence/absence of features that best described each illness. Those high concordance features were then compared across samples to see if illness descriptions tend to be shared across samples or if they tend to be distinctive or unique across geographical regions and ethnic groups. Results indicate a high degree of sharing across the populations with little unique variation due to regional or ethnic variation.

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