Description
Book SynopsisAs the most complete account of Tarahumara culture ever written,
Tarahumara Medicine grants readers access to a world rarely seen - at once richly different from and inextricably connected with the ideas and practices of Western medicine.
Trade ReviewIn
Tarahumara Medicine, Fructuoso Irigoyen-Rascon reveals, for the first time in a single volume, the complex healing system of the Rarámuri of northwestern Mexico. He provides firsthand information on Rarámuri concepts of illness, healing, and the soul, and a comprehensive ethnobotanical guide to medicinal plant use. This thorough, readable volume belongs in every library and collection devoted to the Rarámuri or to the indigenous peoples of Mexico, American Indians, American Indian medicine, or American Indian ethnobotany."" - Enrique Salmón, author of
Eating the Landscape: American Indian Stories of Food, Identity, and ResilienceHaving lived and worked as a medical student and physician among the Rarámuri, psychiatrist Irigoyen-Rascón learned the language and recorded the Rarámuri's conceptions of medicine and healing practices, detailing herbal cures, rituals, and conceptions of disease. To contextualize the ethnographic data in this in-depth description of Tarahumara healing practices, the author offers a description of Tarahumara ecological habitat and a historical overview, emphasizing aspects of cultural contact and change. After situating the Tarahumara historically and culturally, Irigoyen-Rascón describes their curing ceremonies and offers a comprehensive ethnographic account of Rarámuri traditional herbal remedies, including their botanical characteristics, properties, attributed effects, and uses. The healing practices are a blend of religious lore, magic, and careful observations of nature. To fully explore healing, the author uses an emic and etic approach to examine the relationship between Tarahumara healing systems and conventional medicine, noting that traditional healing reinforces tribal social cohesion and cultural identity. Irigoyen-Rascón closes with a summary of medical and epidemiological information of current health needs among Tarahumara communities. A powerful piece offering ethnographic data about Rarámuri health conceptions and medicinal plant use. -
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