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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY PUBLICATION NO. 6 



portant than a traditionally sanctioned pattern 

 of behavior are the personalities of the indi- 

 viduals involved. 



DISEASE AND CURING ^= 



As an adult, and probably as a spouse and 

 parent, the individual has more responsibilities 

 than during any other period of his life. Most 

 of these responsibilities are economic, and as 

 such predictable and foreseeable. Other re- 

 sponsibilities are brought on by crises, predict- 

 able only in the sense that sooner or later every- 

 one must face them. Of those that have not 

 as yet been treated, sickness and death are the 

 most feared and the most haunting. Both are 

 accepted more philosophically and with more 

 resignation than in our o-wn society, but this 

 in no way alleviates the responsibility upon the 

 part of the healthy or the survivors. In a sense, 

 sickness is a greater crisis than death, since in 

 the latter case the course of action is determined 

 by custom, and no important decisions as to the 

 best plan to follow must be made. 



When a person is taken ill the decision as to 

 what must be done is more difficult to make now 

 than at any time in the past. Formerly, when it 

 became apparent that the matter was serious, a 

 curandero or native curer was called in. He or 

 she decided whether the illness was due to witch- 

 craft or natural causes, and recommended the 

 proper course of action. Nowadays, faith in 

 native curers has broken down to a great extent, 

 but the trained physician has not entirely re- 

 placed them. Los microbios, germs, are known 

 to be a cause of illness, but there is little under- 

 standing of means by which they can be avoided. 

 And there is always the haunting fear, when 

 recovery is not prompt, that perhaps witchcraft 

 is responsible after all, in which case a trained 

 physician's help may not be efficacious. Hence, 

 present concepts of disease reflect a dual origin, 

 and the treatments administered represent a 

 rather unhappy blending of ancient and modern 

 practice. 



In recent years Tzintzuntzan has come to rely 

 more and more on trained doctors, the nearest 

 of whom practices in Quiroga, 8 km. away, and 

 the next nearest in Patzcuaro, 16 km. away. Dif- 

 ficulties in transportation, and frequent inabil- 



1^ This is a very summary treatment, 

 on disease and curing is planned. 



A separate paper 



ity to pay for house calls, are two of the chief 

 reasons which restrict more frequent recourse 

 to professional medical advice. Probably most 

 Tzintzuntzenos by now have greater faith in the 

 knowledge of trained medical men than in that 

 of local curers. They rely upon local advice 

 primarily because it is less expensive, and be- 

 cause the decision to call a curandera — ■ all are 

 women — is more easily made than to take the 

 patient to town or to hurry to the doctor. None 

 of the seven local curamleras has had profes- 

 sional training. They are not shamans in the 

 sense that they receive power from the super- 

 natural, and their ability is simply the result of 

 the centuries of accumulation of folk knowledge. 

 A curandera diagnoses the cause of illness by 

 examining the patient and asking about his ac- 

 tivities during the preceding days. Though she 

 recognizes natural causes, her diagnosis also is 

 predicated on the possible presence of other 

 factors, at least some of which represent sur- 

 vivals from pre-Conquest times. 



Common causes of disease are believed to 

 be aire ("air"), susto ("fright," here called 

 asusto), mal de ojo ("evil eye"), and the mo- 

 Hera. The last cause is the most difficult to 

 understand. Literally, the word refers to the 

 soft spot on the top of the head of babies. In 

 local belief it is a vague, indefinable "some- 

 thing" which is inside the head, and which can 

 be injured by a blow on the crown or at the 

 base of the skull; a person knocked unconscious 

 suffers because of injury to his mollera. Likewise 

 it is connected with the hard palate; one of the 

 duties of the midwife is to place her hand inside 

 the mouth of a newborn child to press upward to 

 "set" the mollera, which otherwise might fall 

 and make the child ill. To a certain extent the 

 mollera corresponds to, or is closely connected 

 with the soul. It cannot be jarred out of the 

 body, but at death the head magically opens and 

 it floats up into the air. There is no very good 

 treatment for a person whose mollera has been 

 damaged. Sometimes a curer, especially in the 

 case of children, will press up on the hard palate 

 and with her mouth full of water suck on the 

 soft spot on the top of the head, in the hope 

 that the mollera will return to its proper place. 

 To a limited extent the ideas about fright as 

 a cause of illness may be bound up with the 

 mollera. A common primitive concept of a cause 



