Traditional Healing System

A PROPOSED APPLICATION OF ETHNOMEDICAL MODELS TO TRADITIONAL ameliorate SYSTEMS Stanley Kipper Ethno medical specialty has be fall down a theme of intensive drive in recent years due, in burst, to the work of the World well upness funda noetic law and opposite groups attempting to allay cooperation between endemical practicians and those trained in westbound allopathic biomedicine.This chapter describes devil ethnomedical formations (the North Ameri put up Navajo tradition and the S emergeh Ameri merchantman Peruvian Pachakuti curanderismo) in harm of two different influences, integrity objectiveal by Siegler and Osmond (1974), and unity designed by a task take of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Each of these endemic transcriptions be found to be comprehensive, c all overing each facet of the models, and pointing the way for take a shit able-bodied collaboration between allopathic biomedicine and variant indigenous placements of better, a l abor movement that has accelerated due to public demand (Iljas, 2006, p. 90). The term ethnomedicine refers to the comparative study of indigenous (or handed-down) medical systems. Typical ethnomedical topics embroil ca phthisiss of affection, medical practiti unmatchedrs and their mathematical functions, and specific sermons utilized. The enlargement of ethnomedical literature has been stimulated by an increased aw beness of the consequences of the forced teddy and/or acculturation of indigenous pecks, the recognition of indigenous health concepts as a means of maintaining ethnic identities, and the search for new medical treatments and technologies.In addition, Kleinman (1995) respects ethnographic studies an appropriate means of representing pluralism and of drawing upon those aspects of health and paroxysm to resist the positivism, the reductionism, and the realism that biomedicine and, regrettably, the roomyr hostelry privilege(p. 195). In his exhaustive study of cr oss-cultural practices, Torrey (1986) cogitate that good treatment inevitably contains matchless or more of intravenous feeding fundamental principles 1. A sh ard institution interpret that halts the diagnosing or naming surgery possible 2.Certain some em luggage compartmental qualities of the practician that calculate to comfort the longanimouss recovery 3. Positive unhurried expectations that assist recovery 4. A grit of mastery that em barons the patient. If a traditional medical system yields treatment outcomes that its society deems effective, it is worthy of consideration by allopathic biomedical investigators, in particular those who argon aw atomic number 18 of the fact that less than 20 percent of the creative activitys population atomic number 18 serviced by allopathic biomedicine (Mahler, 1977 Freeman, 2004 OConnor, 1995).However, what is considered to be effective varies from society to society (Krippner, 2002). totallyopathic biomedicine places its emph asis upon curing (removing the symptoms of an ailment and restoring a patient to health), while traditional medicine focuses upon meliorate (attaining wholeness of body, take heed, emotions, and/or centre). Some patients might be incapable of be cured because their disease is terminal. Yet those same patients could be healed mentally, emotionally, and/or eldritchly as a result of the practitioners encouragement to review their life, to hold meaning in it, and to become reconciled to expiration.Those who energize been cured, on the other hand, may be taught procedures that ordain clog a relapse or recurrence of their symptoms. An emphasis upon pr regulartion is a standard aspect of traditional medicine, and is sightly an important part of biomedicine as well (Freeman, 2004 Krippner & Welch, 1992). A speciality stick out in like manner be made between unhealthiness and illness. From either the biomedical or the ethnomedical point of view, one dismiss conceptualize distemper as a mechanical difficulty of the body resulting from injury or infection, or from an organisms derangement with its milieu. Illness, however, is a broader term implying nonadaptive behavior, mood disorders, or inappropriate thoughts and feelings. These behaviors, moods, thoughts, and feelings bunghole accompany an injury, infection, or imbalanceor can exist without them. Thus, one may refer to a diseased brain rather than an ill brain, but use the forge of mental illness rather than of mental disease. Cassell (1979) goes so far as to aver that allopathic biomedicine treats disease but non illness physicians argon trained to practice a technological medicine in which disease is their sole concern and in which technology is their altogether weapon (p. 8). ameliorate models The Siegler-Osmond Model similes between biomedicine and ethnomedicine can be made utilizing hypothetical structures much(prenominal) as the 12-faceted model proposed by Siegler and Osmond (1 974). In the neighborly and behavioral sciences, a model is an explicit or implicit explanatory structure that underlies a set of organized group behaviors. Their use in science attempts to modify understanding of the process they represent. Models rent been constructed to describe merciful conflict, competition, and cooperation.Models earn been proposed to relieve mental illness, personality dynamics, and family interactions. I have modified the Siegler-Osmond model, making it relevant to two physical and mental disorders, although traditional practitioners usually do non differentiate between the two. The utility of the Siegler-Osmond model can be show by comparing a shamanic medical model, an eclectic folk ameliorate model, and the allopathic biomedical model on 12 dimensions 1. Diagnosis 2. etiology 3. Patients behaviour 4. word 5. Prognosis . Death and self-destruction 7. Function of the institution 8. Personnel 9. Rights and duties of the patient 10. Rights and dut ies of the family 11. Rights and duties of the society 12. Goal of the model. The Navaho Indian better model The Navaho mend system serves as an example of the drill of the Siegler and Osmond model. The term Navaho (or Navajo) is employ by anthropologists to refer to the largest Native American kinship group in the United States the Navaho reservation in the south west part of the country typifys 16 million acres.The word Navaho is derived from the Spanish term for populate with big sketchs, but in their own language, they call themselves the Dineh people. They argon members of the Confederate Athapaskan linguistic group and occupy plateau aras of north eastern Arizona, coincide into New Mexico and Utah. Geertz (1973) points out that the entire lifestyle of a culture is streng whereforeed upon its fabulous view of verity. The Navaho ethic determine calm deliberativeness, untiring persistence, and self-respectful caution and the Navahos view character as tremendously p owerful, mechanically regular, and snuff itingly dangerous (p. 30). While the overabundant U. S. culture attempts to tame nature, the Navaho worldview seeks to follow in respectful unity with it. Theories of sickness and methods of better make up a large part of this great counterpoint foc apply on symmetry The stricken patient is tending(p) a vocabulary in harm of which to grasp the nature of his or her distress and relate it to the wider world (Geertz, 1973), providing an explanation, and converting muscularity into a form that can heal.Sandner (1979) has identified the virtually important values in Navaho mythology as the acquisition of super vivid power (notably for the maintenance of health), the saving of harmony in family relationships, and the achievement of adult status. However, this status acts in bicycle-built-for-two with cooperation with and respect for other family, clan, and corporation members. The diagnosis is made by the Navaho symptomatician in c onsultation with the patient and the patients family, all of whom work together in find out the cause of sickness.The role of the medicine man in diagnosis is usually limited, as he later carries out instructions given by the diviner (Sandner, 1979). Navahos have constructed three major diagnostic categories of mental illness. Moth craziness is characterized by fits of un take forled behavior (e. g. , jumping into the fire desire a moth), rage, violence, and convulsions it is attributed to incestual activities. Crazy violence has some(prenominal) of the same external manifestations as moth craziness but is due to alcoholism. Ghost sickness, ascribed to sorcery, manifests in nightm ars, loss of appetite, dizziness, confusion, panic, and thoroughgoing anxiety.When someone knowingly or accidentally breaches taboos or ta clear-sightedds dangerous powers, the born(p) order of the domain is ruptured and contamination or infection occurs that must(prenominal) be righted. Etio logy is seen as the assault of a harmful agent that destroys the natural harmony between individuals and their surroundings, especially in circumstances of exposure to lightning, whirlwinds, or such animals as bear, deer, coyotes, porcupines, snakes, and eagles that be inappropriately trapped, killed, or eaten.Sometimes these harmful agents appear in frightening, ominous dreams. Contact with hard drink of the dead is especially hazardous, as is sorcery. The diviner, the medicine man, the patient, and the patients family work together in determining the cause of sickness (Sander, 1979). The patients behavior determines what type of inflect sort ordain be utilized in his or her treatment. A person who is inefficient to resolve grief, who harbors fears of accidents, and who speaks of chest pains usually will be told to have an Evil Way ceremony.The patients dreams atomic number 18 important as a diagnostic aid the most ominous dreams atomic number 18 those of being burned, fal ling off a cliff, and drowning dreams of dead relatives be especially portentous. During treatment, the Navaho hataalii (or singing shaman) utilizes a spell of therapeutic procedures, most notably one or more of the 10 grassroots Chant Ways and their accompanying sand videos. These are manifold religious rites that center on cultural myths in which champes or heroines once journeyed to spireligious rite realms to acquire special knowledge. The symptoms for which a given tone is prescribed are based on connections with the specific chirp myth.For example, the Hail Way is prescribed for muscular tiredness and soreness because the hero, Rain Boy, suffered from these symptoms when he was ack-acked by his enemies the grownup Star Way protects the patient against the powerful influences of the stars and the dangers of the night. The Night Way is utter to be useful for blindness, deafness, and mental illness because the Night Way hero confronted each of these dangers. The Beaut y Way is utilise for rheumatism, sore throats, digestive and urinary problems, and skin diseasesdifficulties faced by the chant hero.Ritual chanting takes a multi-modal attack that contributes to its effectiveness. The repetitive nature and mythic content is easily deciphered and frequently repeated at appropriate times by those patients well-versed in tribal mythology. According to Sandner (1979) The optic images of the sand paintings and the body painting, the audible recitation of prayers and songs, the spirit of the prayer sticks and the hands of the medicine man, the taste of the ceremonial musk and herbal medicines, and the belief of the chant incenseall combine to convey the power of the chant to the patient (p. 15). The hataalii, among the Navahos a antheral practitioner, usually displays a highly un unbeliefable dramatic sense in carrying out the chant but in general avoids the clever sleight of hand effects used by legion(predicate) other cultural mend practit ioners to demonstrate their abilities to the community. The chant is considered by Sandner to facilitate suggestibility. It shifts attention through repetitive singing and the use of culture-specific mythic themes.These activities grow participants for a lengthy healing ceremony that may direct mythic images and narratives enacted in purification rites or executed in sand paintings self-possessed of sand, seeds, charcoal, and flowers. Some paintings, such as those used in a pardon Way, are crafted from such ingredients as corn meal, flower petals, and charcoal. From a mental perspective, the patients translate these symbols and metaphors as they sit on the painting, but from their own perspective, they are interacting with some of the basic forces and energies of nature.Six steps comprise the typical Chant Way ritual preparation (in which the patient is purified), presentation of the patient to the healing spirits, summoning of these spirits to the place of the ceremony, identi fication of the patients with a positive mythic theme, sack of the patients into a condition where ordinary and mythic time and space merge, and boot out from the mythic world and return to the everyday world where past transgressions are confessed, where new learnings are assimilated, and where life changes are brought to fruition.The hataaliis dischargeance gives the patient by creating an pick sphere of influence of soula mythic realitythrough the use of chants, dances, and songs ( often accompanied by drums and rattles), masked dancers, purifications (e. g. , sweat baths, emetics, fumigants, lotions, herbal medicines, ritual bathing, sexual abstinence), and sand paintings. Within the context of this mythic reality, especially as made visible in the designs constructed in sand by the hataalii, the patient is taken into sacred time and is able to confer a total attentiveness to the healing ritual.The patient follows a specific nutriment for the next four days to protect members of the community from his or her newly acquired powers. The role of the community is important in another way the chants are attended by large numbers of people, umpteen of whom might be asked to recruit. This type of participation appears to increase the patients sense of personal power, magnify their conceit as they attend to the chants, providing tender reinforcement and increased motivation. The mentation of the practitioner, the patient, and the community may all be affected by the ceremony.The hataalii is dusted with the decorated sand, and his patients claim to feel the power emanating from the painting. This procedure resembles the enhancement of imagination common to several(prenominal) hypnotic procedures, and is probably further augmented by the repetitive chanting. In addition to the Chant Way, on that point are other rituals used by the hataalii, one of which is a prayer session. For example, sacred corn pollen may be sacrificed during a time of prayer in an attempt to please the spirits needed to heal the patient This ritual must be performed perfectly and behind locked penetrations, often at the patients home.The setting for treatment usually is the Hogan, a specially constructed octagon with log walls, sealed with mud adobe. The door opens to the East, and a hole in the center of the domed ceiling lets the jackpot out. Men sit on the North, women and children on the South the sand painting occupies most of the floor, and the patient sits in the center with family and friends nearby. The door to the darkened Hogan is laced to prevent the prayer from escaping. Sharpened flints are used to expel the criminal from both the patient and the Hogan.These procedures reduce the patients symptoms at the same time as they stabilize the social and emotional condition of the community. For example, the hataalii instructs the family to make elaborate preparations for their approaching house call. Upon arriving, the patients are told that the prognosis is excellent, thus parenting positive expectations (Torrey, 1986). The most important people in the patients life often join in the prayers, reaffirming the belief that the patient will recover.Prognosis, to a large degree, depends upon the attitude of the patient. A Navaho practitioner told Sandner (1979) If the patient really has confidence in me, then he gets cured. If a person gets bitten by a snake, for example, certain prayers and songs can be used, but if the patient doesnt have enough confidence, then the cure wont work (pp. 17 18). Premature end and suicide are attributed to sorcery, the return of the dead, or to the presence of outsiders.Kluckhohn (Kluckhohn & Leighton, 1962) noted that funeral rituals are designed to prevent or discourage dead persons from returning to threaten their relatives. The fear of spirit possession is connected with the fear of ghosts, spirits, and the dead. High suicide rates are associated with Navaho communities marked by loss of tribal identity. When a sick persons family has unflinching that a practitioner is necessary, a hataalii is called in, frequently accompanied by an herb doctor and/or a diagnostician (both of whom are of lower status).There are some 200 plants in the Navaho pharmacopoeia and the herba heels gather these plants and make medicines, some of which are used directly, and some of which are used ceremonially by the hataalii. The diagnosticians, or diviners, are usually women who listen to the spirits and typically exit a contestation of the problem. This procedure may be accompanied by such diagnostic procedures as hand trembling, star gazing, candle gazing, and crystal gazingall of which involve the inward focusing of the practitioners attention, with the purpose of facilitating in collection as to the nature of the problem.Every hataalii must go through a long and arduous period of develop and apprenticeship they must earn the approval of their teachers and their community by dem onstrating that they can perform successfully (Sandner, 1979). The singing shamans memory must be impeccable the effort required to learn one major chant has been compared to that of obtaining a university degree (Sandner, 1979). A patient with a break or fracture is usually sent to an allopathic practitioner, although Sandner notice a Navaho medical specialist set broken bones in a reliable scientific manner (p. 8). In the Navaho system, the patients first priority is that of treatment, and they assume the role of cooperating with the practitioner by taking an active part in their diagnosis and treatment. The major priority of the patients family is to seek diagnosis and treatment for its indisposed family members, seeking certifiable personnel. It is the familys role to determine payment, an important responsibility because some Chant Ways last for several days and the fee may exceed several months salary.The major priority of the patients community is to aid the sick patient . This is through by attendance the Chant Way and facilitating his or her treatment. The community plays the role of preserving traditions and training new practitioners. This latter(prenominal) task is difficult, given the high terms of apprenticeships, especially for the hataalii. The intent of this healing model is integration within the manakin of cosmic harmony, and the rejection of the effects of sorcery which are seen as alien to this harmony (Sandner, 1979).According to Kluckhohn (1962), the Navahos are generations ahead of U. S. physicians in treating the whole person. The goal of Navaho healing is to pay seat the patients harmony with his or her family, clan and universe. The U. S. office of alternate medicine model In April 1995, the Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM) of the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) held a convention on research methodology (OConnor, Calabrese, Cardena, Eisenberg, Fincher, Hufford, Jonas, Kaptchuck, Martin, Scott, & Zhan g, 1997).The charge of this conference was to evaluate research needs in the battlefield of completing and alternative medicine (CAM), and several working groups were created to produce consensus statements on a pattern of essential topics. The panel on definition and description accepted a dual charge to establish a definition of the field of complementary and alternative medicine for purposes of identification and research to identify factors critical to a thorough and unbiased description of CAM systems, one that would be applicable to both quantitative and qualitative research.The panel defined CAM as follows Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is a broad domain of healing re references that encompasses all health systems, modalities, and practices and their accompanying theories and beliefs, other than those intrinsic to the politically overabundant health system of a particular society or culture in a given historical period. CAM includes all such practices and id eas self-defined by their users as preventing or treating illness or promoting health and well being. Boundaries within CAM and between the CAM domain and the domain of the dominant system are not always calculative or fixed. OConnor et al. , 1997) The second charge of the panel was to establish a list of parameters for obtaining thorough descriptions of CAM systems. The list was constructed on 14 categories first conceptualized by Hufford (1995, p. 54ff) 1. Lexicon. What are the specialized terms in the system? 2. Taxonomy. What classes of health and sickness does the system recognize and address? 3. Epistemology. How was the body of knowledge derived? 4. Theories. What are the key mechanisms tacit to be? 5. Goals for Interventions. What are the primary goals of the system? 6.Outcome Measures. What constitutes a successful treatment? 7. Social Organization. Who uses and who practices the system? 8. Specific Activities. What do the practitioners do? What do they use? 9. Responsibi lities. What are the responsibilities of the practitioners, patients, families, and community members? 10. Scope. How extensive are the systems applications? 11. digest of Benefits and Barriers. What are the risks and costs of the system? 12. Views of Suffering and Death. How does the system view agony and death? 13. Comparison and Interaction with Dominant System.What does this system provide that the dominant system does not provide? How does this system interact with the dominant system? The 14th category regards research methods and it not appropriate for this essay, one which focuses on descriptions. Peruvian Curanderismo The OAM categories can be illustrated with an Andean ethnomedical system, producely Pachakuti (i. e. , world verso or exchangeation) tabular array Curanderismo, a tradition deeply grow in the Huachuma and Paqokuna traditions and blended with aspects of Paqokuna Curanderismo. They have been adapted to become accessible to the industrialise world by Osca rMiro-Quesada of the Pachakuti Mesa tradition. I have discussed this system with two of its leading English-speaking practitioners, Oscar Miro-Quesada (2002) and his student Matthew Magee (2002). In addition, I have observed Magee perform two ritualistic Mesa ceremonies. Because of its complexity and sophistication, this system can be described in terms of the OAM categories (OConnor et al. , 1997) 1. Lexicon. Specialized terms come from Spanish, Aymara (an Andean language), and two forms of assimilated Quechua language, the rural form (i. e. , Runasimi) and the high form (i. . , Khapaqsimi)the latter spoken by royalty or people in positions of power. In describing the ethnomedical and social communitary function of Peruvian Curanderismo, however, it is important to note that several terms have changed over time. For example, the contemporary terms used to describe the shaman and the sorcerer are maestro and brujo, respectively. However, if one traces the lineage of the Pachakuti Me sa tradition, one would find the terms curandero and malero (post-Conquest), hampiq and layqa (Inca pre-Conquest), and kamasqa and sonqoyog (pre-Inca) as well.There are also variations between charismatic and non-charismatic healers and, most recently, between Pachakuti Mesa practitioners and neo-shamanic practitioners. 2. Taxonomy. The Pachakuti Mesa tradition recognizes and addresses a wide variety of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual classes of health and sickness (Magee, 2002). Within this system, at that place are several types of ailments, and Spanish words are used to describe them enfermedad de dano (a sickness caused by human intention), enfermedad de Dios (a God-given sickness), contagio (contagious sickness), and encantos (sickness caused by enchantment).Examples of the most common, enfermedad de dano, include harmful intention directed toward the ears (por oreja), through the mouth (por boca), through the air (por aire), or by loss of ones etheric body or soul (sombra). The latter is typically brought active by susto or espanto (i. e. , sorcerous shock or fright). More etymonal is shucaque, or fright by trauma. In addition, there are sicknesses caused by envy and the evil eye (por mal de ojo) and by an evil wind (mal aire). The ritual encounter between the patient and the practitioner can be viewed as a dialogue about dano in which the shaman (i. . , curandero or curandera) uses a persuasive rhetoric (in speech and in song) in conjunction with ritualized activities to transform the patients self-understanding, hence his or her well-being. Most physical ailments fall into the category, enfermedad de Dios. In many a(prenominal) traditions, practitioners do not deal with these conditions, but Pachakuti Mesa shamans are an exception. The visual symptoms of a God-given sickness are similar to the vista en virtud (sight in virtue and power) that practitioners manifest after ingesting the San Pedro cactus, a psychotropic substance.As a re sult these symptoms rarely show up in the campo medio, the pose field of the practitioners healing altar, when he or she is performing a diagnostic rastero (i. e. , divination or tracking). 3. Epistemology. When tracing the origins of the Pachakuti Mesa tradition back through its oral lineage within Peruvian shamanism, one must go back to the Sechin culture, as well as the later Chavin, Tiahuanacu, Paracas, Nasca, Moche, Lambayeque, Chimu, Wari, Inca (or Inka), Aymara, Runa (or Quechua), and Mestiso traditions.Although archeological discoveries in the 1980s suggest that Perus central highlands were inhabited from 8,000 BCE and the origins of Perus shamanic technology can be traced back at least to 2,000 BCE, many practitioners believe that Mesa-related healing practices were utilized far earlier. 4. Theories. When working with a Mesa, a practitioners healing altar, the key mechanisms are believed to be his or her ability to control and direct unseen forces and entities.This is acco mplished through proper utilization of the field of the magician (campo ganadero) as well as the field of the mystic (campo justiciero). dictation of these two skills allows the practitioner to surrender his or her personal will or agenda, becoming an open, transparent vessel for Spirit to flow through, unhindered. The mastery of these palm is symbolized on either side of the Mesa, while the practitioner, as Master therapist or maestro, resides in the middle (campo medio). The healer also works with a supernatural hierarchy through a process of co-creation with Spirit.This hierarchy is believed to be a unified, interdependent system that provides practitioners with limitless ascendants of guidance and power. These sources include the Apukuna (Sacred Mountains), Huaringas (Sacred mountainous Lagoons), Pachamama (Mother Earth), Mama Killa (Grandmother Moon), Inti Tayta (Father Sun), Auquis (Nature Spirits), Tirakuna (the Watchers), Mallquis (Tree Spirits), Machukuna (Ancestors), M achula Aulanchis ( merciful Old Ones), tutelary animal allies, the elements of nature (e. g. , unu, wayra, nina, allpa), and various roman letters Catholic saints (e. . , San Cipriano of Antioch, Brother Martin de Porres). Working with these sources requires a delicate balance, not only through the practitioners negotiation of control and surrender, but through animateness a lifestyle that reflects this balance (ayni or sacred reciprocity). Training involves a culturally sanctioned calling into the tradition. When a maestro passes on his or her knowledge or bequeaths ones practice to an initiate, there is an initiatory phenomenon (karpays) and a magical contract (pacto magico). . Goals for Interventions. Healing is a spiritual phenomenon. Sickness is considered to have its origin in, and gain its meaning from, the Spirit world. The purpose of life itself is to be initiated into the Laputan regions of Spirit and to maintain oneself in concert with all creation (Achterberg, 1985). Hence, the goal for intervention in Pachakuti Mesa Curanderismo is a successful florecimiento (flowering of band healing ritual) that is used to strengthen a persons physical and spiritual systems.Strengthening a patients runa kurku kanchay (luminous body), as opposed to suppressing the symptom, empowers the patient to remove the sickness-causing intrusion with his or her own innate healing capacities. Once the patients personal power has been augmented, there is often a need to go further. This is especially lawful if the problem is extreme, as in soul loss, possession, enchantments, and potent acts of dano (e. g. , curses, certain types of contagion).In these cases, there is often a need to intervene on behalf of a patient with specific techniques for removal in the form of extraction (chupa), or counteracting the attack through ritual battle (volteando, volteada, or botando in which the curse is propel back to its sender). Successful interventions of this kind usually complet ely disperse the patients proscribe condition and symptoms, and generate sickness in the person who initiated the curse. Depending on the master copy severity of the curse, death of the sorcerer has been known to occur. 6. Outcome Measures.A successful intervention is gauged generally by the quality of the florecimiento, which brings about the energetic restoration or supplementation of a persons potentials. This flowering of dormant potentialities brings forth qualities in the person necessary to maintain a sustainable livelihood. 7. Social Organization. Depending on the train of shamanic mastery attained, practitioners will be assigned various civic units of geographical space in which to work, ranging from the ayllu (extended family or community), to the llaqta (village or town), and finally the suyu (region).A curandero (or curandera) performs shamanic functions in this system. They include working with sicknesses brought about by sorcery, imbalance, envy, etc. , providing insight into conditions of the harvest, resolving social conflicts, influencing the weather, finding lost items (as well as lost persons or souls), and attending to a variety of spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical conditions. These healing sessions are primarily conducted on Tuesdays and Fridays.The curandero (or curandera) also performs specific ceremonial services for the community, such as providing ritual feedings (offrendas, despachos, or haywarikuys) for Pachamama (Mother Earth), the Apukuna (Sacred Mountains), and various supernatural beings (such as the Watchers, Nature Spirits, Tree Spirits, the Ancestors, the Benevolent Old Ones). A despacho or haywarikuy is a ritual projecting used to bring up a reciprocal exchange of thanks between human communities and the natural world.In the Paqokuna tradition, the pampa misayoq (ritual specialist) may learn to create and perform several ampere-second different types of despacho or haywarikuy ceremonial rituals. The perform ances are quite different and comprise 24 basic elements (recados) in the form of plant, animal, mineral, and human made products. All of these elements are reverently arranged on a square plane of paper and either burned or buried as a way to promote the lifestyle of ayna (sacred reciprocity). There are offerings for births, deaths, marriages, good luck, prosperity, longevity, and harvests, to name a few.It is also common for practitioners to use despachos to bless certain spaces, such as living quarters, work places, and sacred sites. There are various types of curanderos and curanderas, e. g. , the alto misayoq (herbalists), the pampa misayoq (ritual specialists), and the kuraq akulleq (literally, master chewers of coca). The latter is considered to have attained the highest aim of mastery and rank within the shamanic hierarchy. Both males (curanderos) and effeminates (curanderas) are employed as healing practitioners in this tradition.The services of a brujo (or sorcerer) ca n be purchased to adversely affect the health of a rival, or to assure success in business concern, love, and other aspects of personal gain. The person who has hired a brujo may wear out this fact to an ally, who will subsequently pass the news along a network that eventually leads to the intended target. Similarly, the curanderos or curanderas analysis of the source of a patients suffering is often a topic of subsequent conversation between social intimates of the patient this is also true of the countermeasures (e. g. , the volteada or ritual in which sorcery is reversed) often used by the shaman.Potential patients for both the curandero and brujo include most of the members of the community, but when seeking medical service from the curandero, patients also commonly see both a curandero and an allopathic physician, often not openly discussing their visit to the former. This reluctance to reveal utilization of the indigenous healing system applies to any member of the social system, from the wealthy business executive to the poor farmer. Patients of curanderos and brujos include owners of businesses, political office holders, educators, military officers, and even a few medical professionals.These persons are willing to spend significant amounts of money and subject themselves to physically exhausting ritual treatments because they have divided with curanderos the belief that sorcery can be the cause of sickness. The majority of patients for both the curandero and brujo are women. This may be due to the inferior role of the female as a subordinate within the public transcript of male privileged society (e. g. , the values of machismo which support gender-based hierarchies, and the subsequent psychological and social conflicts that arise as a result).Through the sorcerer, women can gain access to powers that undertake spousal fidelity (e. g. , love magic), thus eliminating the competition (e. g. , dano). point the apprehension that a woman might purs ue this alternative can act as an effective sanction. The curandero, on the other hand, provides women with the means to rectify wrongs and to hold men studyable for their actions. 8. Specific Activities. a. Diagnosis Diagnosis can be carried out through a variety of activities, for example, a rastreo (divining and tracking), coca leaf divination, reading the entrails of a guinea pig, or hurl shells, etc.However, the source of diagnosis most commonly utilized in healing situations by Huachuma curanderos is the San Pedro cactus. The entheogenic San Pedro imbues the healer with vista en virtud (virtue, vision, and insight), which enables him or her to diagnose not only the illness, aliment, or disease of a patient, but often the source of said illness, aliment, or disease and specific ways to cure it. The curanderos tabular array (personal healing altar) also plays a vital role in the divinatory process of diagnosis, e. g. , by speaking to the curandero through the cuenta (the his tory, story, narrative, or account) of a specific piece or pieces.There are also practitioners who will read the capability of a persons poqpo or wayrari (so-called electromagnetic energy field) to detect imbalances or deficiencies within that energy field and as a means for diagnosis. Ultimately, the above forms of diagnosis are highly effective and are commonly referred to by anthropologists because of the private sapidity of shamanic healing arts. However, one must not overlook the curanderos keen ability to observe with his or her senses (e. g. , simply observing how a person looks, smells, feels, interacts with the world).Curanderos will also often check a persons tongue, nose, eyes, ears, glands, etc. , as a means for diagnosis. The combination of practical and mystical forms of diagnosis have availed the curandero with a high degree of accuracy regarding diagnosis. b. Treatment The various modes of treatment employed by the curandero are as diverse as the conditions requir ing treatment. However, nearly all treatments involve the use of a mesa (healing altar). A mesa is the sacred healing altar of a curandero, one that works in mediation with spiritual and cosmic forces for ritual healing.It is a microcosmic embodiment of a macrocosmic reality. This shamanic altar contains ritually sceptered objects, which are aesthetically arranged on a sacred stuff (unkhunas) to reflect the system of medicine employed by its carrier, e. g. , his or her lineage, cosmogonic background, animal allies, spirit guides, personal apukuna and huaringas (sacred mountains and lagoons). There are four kinds of objects primarily incorporated into a Pachakuti Mesa khuyas (sacred stones), sepkas (power objects), estrellas (gifts from the spirits of the mountains), and enqas (totem fetishes).Among these, it is also common to find batas, palos, and espadas (staffs, sticks, and swords used for protection), florecimientos, (extractions, infusions, ritual battle), pututus (conch shel ls used to call in spiritual care and loosen blocks in an persons body), seguros (good luck charms, protection pieces), rumikuna or khuyas (stones used for healing), condor feathers (used for directing energy and cleaning a persons poqpo or energy field), huacos (objects and artifacts from Colonial and pre-Columbian times used to anchor specific energies into the medicine ground, often that of the ancestors), agua toad de Florida or agua de Kananga (colognes and perfumes, which are spayed through the mouth for cleansing and purification), rattles and whistles (to balance or bring in energy, commonly used when singing tarjos or medicine songs).It is also common to find candles, crosses, images of Roman Catholic saints, meteorites, ceremonially twist belts (chunpis), crystals, holy water, water from the melting ice of glaciers, San Pedro cactus, tobacco, coca leaves, singha (a combination of coca, tobacco, remonstrate alcohol, and such perfumes as agua de florida, taboo, and siete poderes (which is imbibed through the nose), and incenses such as palo santo or copal. An herbal pharmacopoeia can occasionally be found as well. These objects (as well as the items specific to the individual mesa carrier) are arranged in a spatial configuration on the sacred textiles (unkhunas) and worked with to assist in the attainment of physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental integration and balance for the patient in the healing session.When a Pachakuti Mesa is used in ritual healing the peculiarity between the symbol and that which the symbol represents is dissolved. The objects arranged upon the mesa become the mountains, the rivers, the puma, or the empowered representation of the curanderos own healing. Within this state of non-ordinary consciousness the line that delineates subject and object blurs, and the curandero is able to work with the mesa to bring about healing for the patient on an energetic level, which working at the source of the condition rather than thr ough medicating the symptoms. Treatment also commonly involves incorporating the family members of the patient in the healing ceremony.This help oneselfs ensure that the patient will not only return to his or her community change, but he or she will return to a transformed community as well. Curanderos often find themselves acting simultaneously as apologists for, and avengers of, social injustices. 9. Responsibilities. a. Practitioner responsibilities To attain a competent level of mastery through apprenticeship and experiential training, the shoot for practitioner must complete a series of rites of passage (karpays) governed by his or her teacher, elders and peers in the tradition, and the spiritual hierarchy. An example of the latter would be a demonstration of using coca leaves for diagnostic purposes.Once an apprentice is deemed qualified by his or her community, he or she may begin seeing patients on a small scale, but must build a square(a) reputation as a competent heale r. This requires that the curandero consistently provide immaculate diagnosis and effective treatment for the patients in need of healing. The curandero is also trusty to recommend alternative means for healing if he or she is not capable or does not specialize in the condition presented by the patient. In addition to being a qualified and capable healer, the curandero must also live a lifestyle of ayni, which reflects not the qualities of the tradition, but the living example of balance mirrored by nature and the living cosmos.This requires one to exist in uninterrupted communion with the spiritual hierarchy, to live as a perpetual student of life, and to continually deepen ones relationship with the phenomenal world, with ones internal world, and with the living universe around one. b. Patient responsibility To be open and willing to participate in the healing being offered, as well as to be willing to implement the advice or prescription suggested by the curandero. The patient is also responsible to provide some form of reciprocal exchange for the healing service provided, either monetarily or through some form of vocation or trade. c. Family responsibility To be present for the healing ceremony if possible, and to provide support with the information gained from the healing session to ensure the patient is able to recover in an environment that supports this new, transformed paradigm.The family is also responsible for communication this information to pertinent community members who can further reinforce the transformed living environment for the patient. The family is often responsible to help compensate the curandero, either through monetary means or through trade if the patient is unable to do so. d. Community responsibility To be a ancillary presence of support for the patient and to reinforce the transformed living environment for the person in transition. 10. Scope. This type of Peruvian shamanism has been practiced over the millennium in remote , northern areas of Peru. This isolation has helped Pachakuti practitioners preserve their independence and their prerogatives.The discernible success of the Pachakuti system in its place of origin is an additional curtilage for its longevity. The scope of this healing system is comprehensive, as it is used for physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual problems. However, there are allopathic treatments and technologies that would bolster traditional medicine, and well-meaning curanderos and curanderas often enterprisingness to make referrals to a clinic or infirmary (typically, at a distance) if that would help their patient. 11. Analysis of benefits and barriers. What are the risks and costs of the system? Due to the recent advances in allopathic medical technology, competition between biomedical organizations and indigenous systems is becoming more common.The boundaries that delineate these two systems, and the conditions they address, are often blurred. Poor people often turn to indigenous healers because biomedical treatments are too expensive. However, curanderos are not part of a recognized profession and therefore operate in legal and social marginality. Many curanderos experience harassment from local anesthetic police, who use rarely enforced legal restrictions on non-licensed medical practitioners to wedge protection payments. Church and civic officials have also been party to repressing measures against curanderos. Curanderos certainly recognize the tenuous position that they occupy in the Peruvian medical system.Some prefer to maintain a very low pen to avoid the notice of local officials, for example, by performing their ritual sessions in remote agricultural fields. Other curanderos bank on the support of well-connected patients to keep them out of trouble. 12. Views of suffering and death. This system holds that there is a basic continuity between life and death. When the physical body dies, life and death are not seen as separate, for li fe cannot exist without death. When the physical body dies it goes into the Earth and feeds it, giving life to the plants and trees. The plants feed the animals, who feed the Earth, ad infinitum, in a self-regulating interdependent relationship seen as the great nett of life.All things are born from Pachamama (Mother Earth) and all things shall return to her. Views of the afterlife vary from practitioner to practitioner but most believe in life after the physical body dies. All in all, death is seen as a natural process, inseparable from life. Anthropologists have long noted that lifes transitions (i. e. , birth, death) are commonly marked by elaborate rituals, the purpose of which is to glint the disruption to the social order that such status changes can cause. The body of the person undergoing the transition is often the target of symbolic manipulations special decorations (e. g. , burial costumes) and purification (e. g. , cleansing).A particularly frequent symbolic message c onveyed by these rituals is death and rebirth the person is dying from the social status previously held and being born into a new identity. Indigenous rituals are reminiscent of hospital patients who put on the standardized garb required by the institution, as well as the strict fasting enforced before surgery, the cleansing processes requested of the patient as well as surgical staff, the process by which the patients vital signs and consciousness are taken to a death-like state, and the patients frequently cited post-surgery sense of being reborn. The fact that all these features have medical justifications and explanations does not diminish their potential symbolic impact. Much of the suffering experienced by Peruvians is attributed to acts of dano, or sorcery.This is especially potent in a society like that of Peru where personal relationships are critical to economic excerpt and where the powers of the sorcerer and the curandero are assumed to have empirically verifiable effe cts. Dano, as a threat or as an accepted diagnosis, can have serious social repercussions no matter how outsiders to the tradition might view the forces that the sorcerers claim to control. Peruvian societys rigid social hierarchies make people increasingly dependent upon personal networks in order to survive. The resulting excite of economic self-interest loaded onto personal relationships has contributed to a social world in which mistrust inevitably accompanies interdependence.It should not be surprising, therefore, that social relations would be the assumed source of misfortune and suffering for rural Peruvians. This stands in contrast with traditional Andean attributions of sickness to natural forces and supernatural transgressions. 12. Comparison and Interaction with Dominant System. What does this system provide that the dominant system does not provide and how does this system interact with the dominant system? On the one hand, Miro-Quesada (2002) believes that global shama nism is an emerging phenomenon of the 21st century. The Pachakuti teachings are intended to empower all interested persons, allowing them to work with unseen forces in order to promote healing and balance through spiritual mediation.But on the other hand, the dominant role being played by allopathic biomedicine often rules out peoples interest and participation in an indigenous healing system (e. g. , Levi-Strauss, 1955). Conclusion On July 14, 2003, Matthew Magee performed a ritualistic ceremony on the top of Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, California, in the spirit of Kamasqa Curanderismo, one of the components of the Pachakuti Mesa tradition. This ceremony waves together several themes that expressed the participants reverence for the Earth as teacher and mother. Together, the group created a consecrated Earth offering (despacho) to foster a lifestyle of sacred reciprocity (ayni) and an awareness of lifes interdependence, calling upon participants to live harmoniously with onese lf, with others, and with the planet as a whole.There are ecopsychologists who believe that healing the planet is basically a shamanic journey if so, traditional medical systems can play a vital role in this endeavor. However, while herbal medicines, indigenous treatments, and shamanism are becoming faddish in the West, indigenous systems in their original contexts are becoming increasingly endangered. It is crucial to support indigenous cultures and learn what shamanism and related systems of healing have to offer the postmodern world before archival research in libraries replaces field research as the best available method for investigating these healing systems. Their longevity indicates that they have served many groups of eople quite well over the millennia. The question remains as to what they can offer a world where allopathic biomedicine is not only revered but also powerful, a world in which reality is constricted to measurable physical dimensions and alternative perspectiv es are dismissed as folk psychology (Kelly, Kelly, Crabtree, Gauld, Grosso, & Gordon, 2007, p. 54). This discussion of Pachakuti and Navaho healing models has present the adaptability of many traditional healing systems to conditions in the contemporary world. The eclectic nature of the system bodes well not only for its survival but its compatibility with collegial practitioners of allopathic medicine.Finally, the ecological emphasis of the two systems provide inspiration for ecologists and their colleagues who jeer with indigenous practitioners that the Earth is at risk, and that collaborative efforts are needed to redress the natural balance. References Achterberg, J. (1985). Imagery in healing Shamanism and modern medicine. capital of Massachusetts Shambhala. 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