Traditional Medicine and Biomedicine among Mapuche Communities in Temuco, Chile: New Forms of Medical Pluralism in Health Care Delivery
Keywords:
traditional medicine, urban areas, Mapuche, ChileAbstract
Within Mapuche indigenous communities in Temuco,
Araucania Region, Chile, traditional healers (machi) and their
healing practices are part of everyday life for many people.
This article shows that there is a clear tendency for Mapuche
people to combine different therapeutic approaches to solve
their health problems. We argue, however, that this behaviour
is not explained by a crisis of identity among the urban
Mapuche community in which the person has lost his or her
own indigenous cultural scheme but has not fully assimilated
the Westernized model. This article shows that this form of
therapeutic pluralism by urban Mapuche is motivated by the
adoption of a holistic perception of health and of plural medicinal
practices among these indigenous communities.
Downloads
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2013 Maria Costanza Torri & Julie Laplante
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors contributing to Anthropologica agree to release their articles under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 Unported license. This licence allows anyone to share their work (copy, distribute, transmit) and to adapt it for non-commercial purposes provided that appropriate attribution is given, and that in the event of reuse or distribution, the terms of this license are made clear.
Authors retain copyright of their work and grant the journal right of first publication.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
