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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY— PUBLICATION NO. 



one of them my friend mentioned above, and another 

 who is still in more or less of an apprenticeship 

 status. The "bad brujo" is an old man. Although 

 I was friendly with him, either because of his senility 

 or his slyness I was unable to extract any useful 

 information from him with respect to his art, but 

 everyone I know in the community claims that he 

 is a powerful malcvo. The other four individuals 

 frequently mentioned as brujos (including the three 

 women), I am not inclined to regard as professionals. 

 They are either the victims of slander — and the ac- 

 cusation that one is a brujo is a favorite theme for 

 whispering campaigns — or else they are believed to 

 have accomplished certain feats of spell-casting 

 against their enemies, but without special training 

 or attempting to make a career of it. 



When I say that an individual is to be regarded 

 as a "professional" brujo in Moche, I do not imply 

 that he employs all his time in this profession. No- 

 where in Peru, so far as I know, does an individual 

 usually devote himself exclusively to one calling, ex- 

 cept in agriculture. Just as the university professors 

 of Lima have their law practices, their drug stores, 

 and their haciendas, so the brujos of IMoche have 

 their chacras and agricultural activities. 



The origin of the black and white varieties of bru- 

 jeria is a historical problem, which perhaps cannot 

 vet be definitely solved. According to Guaman 

 Poma, an outstanding authority on many Inca cus- 

 toms, both "good" and "bad" brujos and curers seem 

 to have existed among the galaxy of specialists con- 

 cerned with such matters in the Sierra under the 

 Inca rule. Guaman Poma, however, makes it sound 

 as if the bulk of the brujos' efforts were devoted to 

 undesirable activities, whereas the counteracting and 

 curing of such business was mainly in the hands of a 

 variety of herbalists and surgeons.®^ Surgical inter- 

 vention seems to have been much more highly 

 developed in the "medicine" of the Sierra than on 

 the coast.*" On the other hand, Guaman Poma 



^8 Guaman Poma (1936). I have succeeded in obtaining this original 

 source (in the facsimile edition) for only a few hours' study. Con- 

 sequently I have had to lean heavily, for the present, on Lastres (1941) 

 for a summary of the medical data and methods of curing set forth 

 in the original work. See also Dietschy, 193S. The French fac- 

 simile edition of Guaman Poma is apparently out of print at this 

 writing, and another facsimile edition, published in Bolivia, I have 

 been unable to purcha'^e up to the time of going to press. 



'^ -Although the Mochica ceramics in the Museo Arqueol6gico "Rafael 

 Larco Herrera" at Cliiclin show that punitive surgery was extensively 

 used in the amputation of limbs, nose tips, and sexual organs of 

 presumed criminals, therapeutic surgery occurs very infrequently, both 

 in the ceramics and in the bones recovered from Mochica graves. 

 Trepanation, so common among the Incas, is extremely rare among 

 the Mochicas. 



¥ 



makes no mention whatever of the diagnostic use of 

 the guinea pig rubbed over the body of the patient. 

 The curing brujo with whom I worked was a 

 native of Viru, although he made his home in Moche 

 many years ago and has raised a family of Mocher- i : 

 itos. He has more white blood than many Mocheros, '•, 

 however. He himself is a man of serious mien, . 

 about 60 years of age, with large, "piercing," blood- Hi 

 shot eyes. He is somewhat reserved in manner, but \ 

 after a basis of confidence has been established, talks ji 

 in a frank way. His conversation is sprinkled with i 

 quiet jokes and he speaks freely. With me, at least, J) 

 he made no great show of omniscience, eccentricity, \ 

 or of supernatural powers. He admitted frankly jJ 

 that there are some things he does not know and | 

 some conditions which he cannot cure, but he showed t 

 a quiet confidence in those powers and that knowl- | 

 edge which he believes he possesses. He himself got 

 into brujcria when he went to Salas in his early 

 youth to be cured of a "case of worms in the leg." 

 One of the great masters of Salas cured him, but 

 since he had no money to pay the fee, required him 

 to stay 6 months and work out the payment of the 

 treatment as an alcador. In the course of time he 

 became interested in brujeria as a profession. The 

 master "tested" him for another year, during which 

 he continued to serve as assistant, living in a room 

 of the master's house with bare subsistence. He says 

 that only those candidates are accepted for final in- 

 struction who the master is convinced have the "true 

 spirit." One must have an innate ability to learn 

 tlie techniques, and to see visions, but above all, the 

 candidate must be absolutely sincere in believing 

 in the power of the herbs. He claims that his own 

 master could detect the slightest faltering in interest 

 or belief, and that he was thrown out of the master's 

 graces several times before his "soul was pure." He 

 savs that the emphasis is on spiritual dedication and 

 honesty. Chicanery of all kinds is definitely ruled 

 out. 



.■\lthough the most which the average Peruvian 

 medical man would admit regarding this is that there 

 may be honor among thieves, I am inclined to believe 

 that brujeria, at least the "good" type, does involve 

 a strong spiritual element regarding which its prop- 

 erly trained practitioners are quite sincere. Consid- 

 ered as a professional institution or cultural orienta- 

 tion, its symbolic patterns would seem on the whole 

 to be consistent with its representational patterns. If 

 laymen are "duped" by brujeria, so also in most cases 



