Muna Ethnography

1
Medical Arts of the Maya of Yucatan Chiapas
2
Five Areas of Traditional Practice

• Ilol Pulse Reader
• Koponej witz Prayer Healer
• Jvetome Midwife
• TzacBak Bone Healer
• Acvomol Herbalist

3
Mayan Medicine offers

• Prayers
• Wooden Crosses
• Incense
• Flowers
• Posh
• Soda (Coke)
• Herbs
• Candles

4
Ilol(Pulse Reader)

• Diagnosis from blood flow.
• Source fear, envy, bad spirits or organic.
• Cure elements of nature

5
Koponej witz (Prayer Healer)

• To spirit of Earth in cardinal directions.
• Uses candles, incense, basil.
• During family or community crisis.

6
Midife
Jvetome (Midwife)
7

• Tut Vomol post-partum bleeding
• San Martin Vomol hurry birth
• Meste hemorrage, vomiting
• Sitit post-partum bleeding
• Altamixa Vomol bleeding pain
• Veronika Vomol fever

8
Don RodolfoOur First Informant

• Modern food disease.
• Traditional healing the new generation.
• Remedies.
• Eye Cleansing Albahaca seeds (Basil)

9
Doña Fermenia

• Household herbal remedies.
• Cancerora Xiu
• Kanan pimples.

10
Don AntoñioOur Unofficial Guide

• The poet
• The politician
• Views on pesticides

11
Doña Marga CuranderaPrayer Healer

• Who comes to see you?
• Will you pass on the Sastun?
• Los Dioses or The Four Dwarves.
• The sacredness of the healing arts.

12
Remedies Fortune Telling

• Gallstones Evil Eye.
• The Candles a way to see.
• 3 Our Fathers Syncretism.
• Communication with 3 brothers.
• The Gift.

13
(No Transcript)
14
Museo De la Medicina Maya

• Centre for Development of Mayan medicine was
  established to preserve traditional knowledge
• Informant Miguel

• Medicinal information has been passed down from
  traditional Mayan healers for centuries

15
The sacred and organic connected

• Earth with plants
• Alcohol with water
• Candles with fire
• Air with prayer
• When we die, we return to the earth

16

• One plant can be used for multiple ailments
• MEXICAN APPLE
• Use-hypertension
• Use-dysentry

• All parts of the plant and animals are used
• leaf, bark, stem, root, fruit, nut, seeds
• PICHE
• Use- shampoo
• Use- diarrhea

17
Animal Uses

• STINGRAY
• For Migraines
• Part Used Spine
• BEE
• For Body Cramps
• Part Used Stinger
• SNAKE
• For Reumatism
• Part Used Fat

18
Animal Uses

• OPPOSUM
• For Speeding up child birth
• Part Used Tail
• BLACK SPIDER
• Inflamation of the testicles
• Part Used Fangs

19
Minerals

• LIMESTONE
• For fallen womb
• OBSIDION
• For asthma
• BLACK MUD
• For intestinal inflamation

20
Hot and Cold Plants Exemplify Principles of
Balance

• Hot and cold are determined in the preparation
• Cough - cold
• Eucalyptus -warm
• (vicks)
• Whooping cough - warm
• Hibiscus - cold

21
Hot and Cold

• Childbirth - warm
• Ramon Tree - cold
• used to help speed up childbirth

Ramon tree located at the Botanical Gardens in
Merida
22
Present Status of Knowledge

• Museum located on outskirts of town
• Financial struggle
• Knowledge not easily disceminated or passed on

23
Modern Ailments

• Pop Junk Food
• Factory food was ruining peoples diets, he
  scolded. People were being afflicted with what he
  called modern food disease. Junk, or cochinada
  (pigged) food was at the root of most of his
  patients ailments, which he noticed were
  worsening in the recent decades
• Rosita Arvigo, SASTUN

24
Modern Ailments

• Diabetes
• Miscarriages Birth Problems
• Heart Disorders

25
Contemporary Views

• Don Elijio
• Traditional healing has become so confused with
  black magic that many now fear working with
  spiritual forces, even when used for healing and
  service
• Don Elijio, SASTUN

26
Credibility

• Only helps, never harms
• Count the successes, not the failures
• Often an untapped resource
• Examples
• Oranges back
• Marys knee

27
Oranges
BEFORE
AFTER
28
BEFORE
AFTER
29
TzacBak (Bone Healer)

• Fractures, joints, sprains, swelling
• Treatment contains posh, blowing, spitting,
  whistling, manipulation of joints and muscles,
  bandaging
• Herbs, candles, incense.

30
Doña Julia

• Town of Zinacantan
• Mary and I went to visit her, but were only shown
  the directions after Mary expressed her knee pain

31
Doña Julia and Mary

• Read Pulse
• Put posh in her mouth, and sprayed it on her knee
• Massaged and moved around the joint
• Pain was relieved after only 15 minutes of her
  work!
• Refused payment

32
Remedies From Mayan Pharmacy

• We have been passing around
• Reumaetik Ointment,
• Golpetik Ointment
• Pomada para las vías respiratorias
• Romero
• Tronadora
• Turasnu Vomol
• Compuesto Vegetal
• Angelica
• Eucalipto
• Ajetetes
• Also, a table of various herbs and ailment
  remedies.

33
Last Words from Don Elijio

• Fewer than one-half of 1 percent of the planets
  250,000 species have been exhaustively analyzed
  for their chemical composition and medicinal
  properties. From that one-half of one percent,
  some 25 percent of all our prescription
  pharmaceuticals have been discovered.

---Don Elijio, SASTUN