Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0044/00443.txt

Text File | 1991-06-24 | 7KB | 135 lines

$Unique_ID{COW00443}
$Pretitle{266}
$Title{Bolivia
Traditional Medicine}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Linda Farthing}
$Affiliation{Embassy of Bolivia, Washington DC}
$Subject{medicine
traditional
herbs
western
kallawaya
knowledge
healers
still

}
$Date{1989}
$Log{}
Country:     Bolivia
Book:        The Cultural Guide of Bolivia
Author:      Linda Farthing
Affiliation: Embassy of Bolivia, Washington DC
Date:        1989

Traditional Medicine

     In the land once known as Kollasuyo, the country of medicine, traditional
practices still hold far greater sway than Western medicine. Seventy percent
of Bolivians, particularly in the rural areas, first seek the curandero (the
local healer), and often utilize Western medicine only as a last resort. This
reluctance stems from several factors: Western medical care is expensive, and
so are its medicines. Doctors from the cities usually can only communicate in
Spanish, and often have little understanding or respect for indigenous
culture.

     In Bolivia, every village or community has its herbalist who knows which
plants and herbs can be used for medical purposes. Traditional medicine is an
integral part of the culture and responds to its values and beliefs, although
over the years it has begun to incorporate aspects of Western medicine.
Increasingly, common Western medicines such as aspirin appear in the healer's
bag. Traditional medicine takes into account the patient's own perception of
his illness, and considers the emotional state of the patient important in
selecting a remedy.

     Although Western medical practitioners are willing to acknowledge that
25-30 percent of the herbs used in traditional medicine are as effective as
Western medicines, most cannot comprehend the use of ritual, magic, and
amulets in the healer's repertoire. The healers believe that often illnesses
in the body have their origin in the soul, and in the "ajayu" (life force)
leaving the body.

     The healer's job is to coax the ajayu back into the body, and restore the
body/mind/psyche equilibrium. Of equal importance is the equilibrium between
the person and the natural and supernatural world.

     According to Dr. Toribio Tapia, a La Paz naturopath, "The medical
philosophy of the Aymara is very different from the oriental or the
occidental. Here we consider it vital to instill confidence in the patient,
to establish a deep dialogue, like confession in the Catholic religion, like
softening psychological resistance and being purified."

     "Man is a product of what he eats," says another traditional healer, Dr.
Walter Alvarez. "If he knows what to eat he will not have parasites, he will
not have diarrhea. We are lucky to have excellent plants that are food and
medicine at the same time. Coca was the first anesthetic discovered, and
soldiers of the Chaco war (the 1932-35 war between Bolivia and Paraguay)
survived thanks to chewing coca leaves. Our plant Andres Huaylla contains
antibiotics and from fermented soil we get terramycin. This is not witchcraft,
it is knowledge from our ancestors."

     Among Bolivian traditional healers, the kallawayas hold a special place.
Why six small villages northeast of Lake Titicaca became a center for
wandering healers remains a mystery. Some theories hold that they are
descendants of Tiwanaku culture, others that they were sent as colonizers into
this region by the Incas, and still others that they developed their knowledge
in the past two or three centuries.

     As many as 27 percent of the residents of these villages are considered
Kallawayas, legendary healers with considerable powers. Their travels
throughout South America have given them access to and knowledge of an
enormous number of herbs. It is estimated that each kallawaya has committed to
memory information about 300 herbs, and the most capable know the uses for 600
herbs. In all, they have accumulated knowledge about 1000 medicinal herbs.

     The kallawaya recognize limits to their curative abilities: they don't
try to cure serious hereditary diseases or diseases in very advanced stages.
This is not so much fatalistic as realistic. They have their own language,
linguistically derived from Quechua, which is slowly disappearing. Their
knowledge is usually passed from father to son, or occasionally to
apprentices.

     Up until the 1950s, each student had to study eight to ten years, and
then prove his knowledge before a community council. They then traveled, and
still do, gathering herbs and curing. They rarely worked as healers full-time;
usually they worked the land at least part of the year. Although women were
traditionally not allowed to become kallawaya, they played an essential role
in medicine helping to gather herbs, as midwives, and as healers of women's
reproductive systems.

     In the 1950s the Kallawaya tradition was disappearing, but renewed
interest in natural medicine has provided it some support. Unfortunately, this
support has also meant an increase in those who call themselves kallawayas in
order to earn a living without the necessary training. To ensure both a
thorough education and the continuation of the kallawaya tradition, schools
have been established in the villages of Curva and Chajaya. However, they have
functioned intermittently, in large part because the kallawaya are not
accustomed to this form of passing on their knowledge, and also because they
still travel a great deal.

     An organization no less prestigious than the World Health Organization
has in recent years begun to encourage traditional medicine worldwide as part
of a recognition of its importance in primary health care. The Bolivian
College of Doctors in 1986 also urged the incorporation of traditional
medicine into health projects. The integration of the two types of medicine,
however, is far from easy. One European doctor who has been involved in such
efforts believes that the greater degree of infrastructure required by Western
medicine soon swallows the traditional medicine aspect. A great number of
doctors still associate traditional medicine with witchcraft, and fail to
recognize its contribution as a well-developed and researched herbal science.

     Juan Villa, a Kallawaya working in La Paz with 50 years of experience in
collecting plants and healing, says there is no such witchcraft. "We learn
about herbs from the age of seven, about where they grow, how and when to
collect them, how and where to store them, etc. We know how to cure all the
common diseases, like rheumatism, gall-bladder, colds, diarrhea, etc. and also
the illnesses from the wind or from lightning."

     To Western medicine, which is often dehumanized, coldly scientific and
analytical, traditional medicine has much to teach. Its emphasis on a
psychic-biological-social equilibrium and the importance of the relationship
between the patient and doctor/healer can add immeasurably to developing a
medicine that truly addresses the needs and realities of Bolivian culture.