Anthropos: Anthropos, 89.1994,1/3

Anthropos, 89.1994,1/3

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Zeitschrift

Strukturtyp:: Zeitschrift

Werks-URN (URL):: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714820

URN:: urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714820

Persistenter Identifier:: BV043334262

Titel:: Anthropos

Untertitel:: internationale Zeitschrift für Völker- u. Sprachenkunde

Erscheinungsort:: Fribourg

Verlag:: Ed. St. Paul

Erscheinungsjahr:: 1906

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

Wissensgebiet:: Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie > Allgemeines

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Strukturtyp:: Zeitschriftenband

Werks-URN (URL):: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-711882

URN:: urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-711882

Persistenter Identifier:: 1513767681452

Titel:: Anthropos, 89.1994,1/3

Erscheinungsjahr:: 1994

Signatur:: LA 1118

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

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Strukturtyp:: Zeitschriftenheft

Titel:: Bd. 89, 1994, Heft 1-3

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

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Strukturtyp:: Zeitschriftenartikel

Titel:: Herbal and Symbolic Medicines of the Lowland Mixe (Oaxaca, Mexico). Disease Concepts, Healer's Roles, and Plant Use

Sonstige Person:: Heinrich, Michael

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

Anthropos 89.1994: 73-83 Herbal and Symbolic Medicines of the Lowland Mixe (Oaxaca, Mexico) Disease Concepts, Healer’s Roles, and Plant Use Michael Heinrich Abstract. - In this article the medical system of the lowland Mixe (Oaxaca, Mexico) is described. Special emphasis is given to the sociocultural basis of the indigenous plant use as part of this medical system. There are four major elements that are addressed in detail: the role of the healers within the community and their forms of treatment, the concepts of diseases prevalent, the treatment strategies, and the importance of plants in the treatment of common illnesses within the medical system. The central position of medicinal plants is discussed using the Low land Mixe as an example. This ethnobotanical and ethnomedi- cal research also shows where the Mixe see the limit of such a phytotherapeutic approach. Any illness associated with heavy pain which is disabilitating or long-lasting requires contact to and help by the supernatural and symbolic forms of treatment. [Mexico, Mixe Indians, traditional medicine, medicinal plants, healers, disease concepts, ethnomedicine, ethnobotany] Michael Heinrich, M. A. (1985), Dr. rer. nat. (1989; Institut fur Pharmazeutische Biologie, Univ. Freiburg i. Br.); ethnobo tanical and ethnomedical field research with the Mixe Indians in San Juan Guichivoci, Oaxaca, Mexico (1985/86, 1988); major research interests: ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology; Mexican medicinal plants and their phytochemistry; efficacy of medicinal plants, esp. of lowland Mixe and Zapotec, Nahua; plants used in nutrition; indigenous concepts of plants and healing; - publications: see, a. o., References Cited. Introduction One of the central aspects of any culture is the medical system. In non-Westem cultures “indig enous,” “traditional,” or “non-Westem” forms of treatment are still of enormous importance. There are estimates that “perhaps 80% of the ... inhab itants of the world rely on traditional medicines for their primary health care, and it can safely be presumed that a major part of traditional therapy involves the use of plant extracts or their active principles” (Farnsworth etal. 1985: 965 f.). While in Mexico there are numerous studies that document medicinal plants from a botanical point of view (e.g., Amo 1979) or studies that de scribe and analyze the indigenous medical systems (e.g., Rubel 1960, Young 1981 for two examples of specific aspects of medical systems in Mexi co, Aguirre Beltran 1986, Foster 1976, Greifeld 1982, Logan 1977), the integration of these two approaches is still scarce (Ramirez 1978). But this ought to be one of the principal focuses of an thropologically oriented ethnopharmacological re search (cf. Etkin 1988, 1993). The goal thus should be twofold: to comprehend the sociocultural ba sis for indigenous therapies and to evaluate these therapies for their medical and pharmaceutical po tentials and risks. The approach to the latter goal will then be interdisciplinary in itself, requiring collaboration between pharmaceutical biologists, pharmacologists, botanists, phytochemists, and an thropologists. In this article I analyze the sociocultural basis of the indigenous plant use as part of the medical system of the lowland Mixe of Oaxaca (Mexico), especially as it relates to the roles of the heal ers. The discussion is subdivided into 4 sections: (a) the role of the healers within the community and their forms of treatment, (b) the concept of diseases prevalent (see also appendix and Heinrich 1985, 1989), (c) treatment strategies, and (d) the importance of plants within the medical system. 1. Ethnographic Background and Methods a) Ethnographic Background The land of the Mixe extends mostly through the cool and humid mountains of the Sierra de Juarez in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, San Juan Gui- chicovi being the only Mixe-speaking community belonging to the subtropical Istmo de Tehuantepec. San Juan is the principal community (cabecera) of a subdistrict (municipio) of the same name. In 1980, 20,000 persons were living in the munici pio, approximately 5,500 to 6,500 of them in the cabecera (Censo General 1980: 145 f. and unpub lished data). Seventy-five percent of the population in the cabecera are considered to be bilingual. A minute fraction of the population speaks only Spanish. The economy is based on subsistence

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