On Mexican Folk Medicine

Ingham, John

doi:10.1525/aa.1970.72.1.02a00090

Cited by 61 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 17 publications

(1 reference statement)

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“…While there are references in the literature to "cleaning" within the context of Mexican folk healing practices (Ingham 1970;Madsen 1955), its symbolic import was unanticipated. While there are references in the literature to "cleaning" within the context of Mexican folk healing practices (Ingham 1970;Madsen 1955), its symbolic import was unanticipated.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While aire is rarely mentioned as an illness per se, it is frequently implicitly implicated as causing symptoms such as in cases 56-2; 43-11; 1-92-10 in Table III. It too has a specific local explanation which seems to differ from other regions in Mexico (Foster 1953;Ingham 1970;Madsen 1955). It too has a specific local explanation which seems to differ from other regions in Mexico (Foster 1953;Ingham 1970;Madsen 1955).…”

Section: Successful Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 95%

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Non-medical treatments and their outcomes

Finkler¹

1980

Cult Med Psych

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This article focuses on outcomes of Spiritualist treatments based upon a series of follow-up studies of patients who came to a Spiritualist temple situated in a rural region of Mexico. Categories of temple patients and conditions under which they resort to alternate therapeutic regimes are also examined. Follow-ups reveal that Spiritualist healers fail more than they succeed to treating their patients. The data suggest that therapeutic benefits from Spiritualist healing tend to occur in four types of disorders--simple diarrheas, simple gynecological disorders, somatized syndromes and minor psychiatric disorders. The findings suggest that successful treatment outcomes are effected not only by concrete manipulation of physiological symptoms but by symbolic manipulation as well. That is, for a therapeutic regime to do its job it must confront cultural imperatives and employ cultural symbols relevant to the removal of the sick role. An unexpected finding of the study reveals that, in the Mexican case, the cultural imperatives relate to cleaning and purification, mediated by tactile communication, which serve symbolically to terminate the sick role.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Successful Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 95%

Non-medical treatments and their outcomes

Finkler¹

1980

Cult Med Psych

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“…Thus, very hot foods are also avoided because of their reputed abortifacient qualities by Tamils (Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi, 1973), Malays and Chinese in Malaysia (Manderson, 1979), and Puerto Ricans (Harwoqd, 1971). Extremely hot and cold foods are avoided or limited throughout pregnancy by all these women and by Cantonese (Topley, 1974), Mexicans (Currier, 1966;Ingham, 1970) and Mexican-American women (Snow and Johnson, 1978).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vietnamese behavioral and dietary precautions during pregnancy

Manderson

Mathews

1981

Ecology of Food and Nutrition

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“…One element common to hispanic-based folk medicine that is present in most areas, the hot-cold syndrome (see Ingham 1940;Foster 1953;and Currier 1966) is missing in South Texas. This condition was first noted by Madsen (1961:23-24) who were raised in the area utilized the hot-cold dichotomy to explain illness, although it was used in organizing herbal cures by one informant, a curandera, who was born in central Mexico and later immigrated to the valley.…”

Section: Background Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Curanderismo: An Emic theoretical perspective of Mexican‐American folk medicine¹

Trotter

Chavira

1980

Medical Anthropology

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In this article curanderismo, Mexican-American folk medicine, is treated as a systematic body of healing theories rather than a mass cultural phenomenon. Using professional healers as informants for a period of over four years, the authors define and describe curanderismo from the emic theoretical perspective, not only providing explanations for the ties between the "Mexican Folk Illnesses" previously reported in the literature, but also showing the evolution and future of curanderismo as a holistic health care system. The classical anthropological works on Mexican-American folk medicine, published primarily in the 1960s, have several common features. (1965) each produced descriptive documents on prominent folk medical practices existing in Hispanic communities in the southwestern United States. 2 They, and the vast majority of the authors in the appended list of references, provide a highly repetitious perspective of curanderismo, especially of descriptions of the (by now) well-known Mexican-American "cultural illnesses": susto, empacho, mal de ojo, caida de mollera, bilis, and espanto (see Nail 1967:302 for definitions). This repetition is caused, at least in part, by the orientation taken by these researchers towards curanderismo. Downloaded by [University of North Texas] at 22:45 26 November 2014 424 MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY / Fall 1980It is clear from reading the available texts that curanderismo has been viewed and analyzed primarily as a mass cultural phenomenon, not as a coherent theoretical system. That is, it has been treated as a body of knowledge that is widely distributed throughout the culture and is available to and utilized by a significant segment of the existing MexicanAmerican population. This view of curanderismo tends to make any discussion of the phenomenon atheoretical, in whole or in part, at least in terms of an emic theory of curanderismo. This condition exists because very few mass cultural phenomena are thought of as having a theoretical orientation. Systems (e.g., medical, educational, scientific systems) are easily recognized as having theoretical components. But mass cultural phenomena are generally thought of as having themes or unifying elements on a higher but nontheoretical level of organization. In fact, mass cultural phenomena are something one has theories about rather than being theoretical systems themselves. This viewpoint is well represented in the articles about curanderismo that reflea its form and function within Mexican-American communities (e.g., Clark 1959b; Edgerton et al. 1970;Foster 1953;Martinez and Martin 1966; Torrey 1969; etc.). No effort seems to have been made by previous authors to demonstrate linkages between the described folk illnesses and their treatments other than through documenting their coexistence within a specified cultural group. As a result, the existing literature lacks a basic starting point from which the different components of curanderismo can be analyzed. These earlier epidemiological approaches to folk illnesses give us an idea of the geogr...

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On Mexican Folk Medicine

Abstract: WISH TO propose an explanation for

Cited by 61 publications

References 17 publications

Non-medical treatments and their outcomes

Non-medical treatments and their outcomes

Vietnamese behavioral and dietary precautions during pregnancy

Curanderismo: An Emic theoretical perspective of Mexican‐American folk medicine¹

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On Mexican Folk Medicine

Abstract: WISH TO propose an explanation for

Cited by 61 publications

References 17 publications

Non-medical treatments and their outcomes

Non-medical treatments and their outcomes

Vietnamese behavioral and dietary precautions during pregnancy

Curanderismo: An Emic theoretical perspective of Mexican‐American folk medicine1

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Curanderismo: An Emic theoretical perspective of Mexican‐American folk medicine¹