Cited by 2Indigenous Studies in Latin AmericaIndigenous Cultures and HistoryAnthropological Studies and Insights

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 8 of the 9 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 16 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.

Relaciones interétnicas de los curanderos en el suroccidente colombiano

Open access
Schindler, Helmut, Faust, Franz Xaver·2000·Anthropologica

Abstract

El artículo no presenta resumen.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

This paper maps the interethnic learning networks of curanderos (healers) in southwestern Colombia, arguing that healers frequently train across ethnic boundaries and that three linked "schools" of curanderismo can be identified. It also documents the Inga and Camsa of the Sibundoy valley as curandero-merchants who distribute medicinal plants and ritual goods across the region.

Key findings

  • Three interlinked schools of curanderismo are identified in southwestern Colombia: the Cholos school (extending into the Pupensa valley around Popayán, Cauca); the Paez school (influencing Guambianos, Totoroes, Yanaconas, Coconucos, Coyaima and Natagaima, and peasants of Huila and the Pupensa valley); and the Putumayo department school (including or influencing Coreguaje, Makaguaje, Inga, Camsa, Yanacona, Nariñenses, Huilenses, Tolimenses and, recently, the Paez).
  • The authors propose two complementary explanations for cross-ethnic healing apprenticeships: the "thesis of exotism" (peoples mystify the foreign/other, regardless of whether the exotic is deemed inferior or superior) and the "thesis of catastrophes" (500 years of demographic and other catastrophes left groups without renowned healers, so they turned to outside experts, made possible by Hispanic peace and Spanish as a contact language).
  • A recent example of the catastrophe thesis: after a massive landslide devastated the Paez river basin in 1994, Paez Indians doubted their own healers (whose coca-derived signs had failed to predict the disaster) and contacted Inga healers; an Inga healer flew to Paez territory with his plants and ritual objects in an executive suitcase, with contacts organized and financed by an indigenous organization.
  • The paper reports that the Inga of the Sibundoy valley (about 7,000 people, Quechua speakers) and the Camsa (about 3,500 people, isolated language) act as curandero-merchants; each Inga merchant carries between 20 and 35 classes of medicine, and in 1985 around 25 Camsa were in this trade, with up to eleven stalls at the Medellín fair. The Inga genealogy presented traces the medicinal-plant trade to the second half of the 19th century.
  • The authors state their data contradict Henman's (1981, 1986) postulate that an ethnic group using coca does not use yagé and vice versa.

Methods

  • Design: ethnographic fieldwork combined with a review of the ethnographic literature to identify parallel cases of interethnic healer networks (e.g., Siona, Desana, Quijos, Jivaro, Colorados, north coast of Peru, Shipibo-Conibo).
  • Data: the authors' own field research, first compiled in 1985 and revisited twelve years later, plus a genealogy of the Inga Jansasoy family and historical documents (e.g., André 1884; Ramirez 1996).
  • Analysis: interethnic learning links are summarized in a map naming the apprentice healer or group of origin and the ethnic group where the study was undertaken; a four-cell table (one/many teachers × own/other group) is used to classify learning relations, with the Mapuche cited as an example of learning within one's own group and vision-based learning without a teacher as another possibility.

Limitations

  • The paper states it does not wish to deepen the question of influences between the cosmologies of different peoples, since other participants address that topic.
  • The authors note the genealogy could be expanded, completed and corrected by adding those of other families.
  • The authors acknowledge the Inga/"Blancas" opposition table is only basically correct, since the pairs are weak (Inga sellers are sometimes women, only part of their plants have indigenous names, and not all medicines come from far away).
  • Evident from the text: the article is a partial, regionally bounded compilation (southwestern Colombia) and its historical claims rest on scattered documents and a single 1884 citation for women traders.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.18800/anthropologica.200001.016

Cites

8 of 8 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

22 Own result · 11 Sources not found · 11 Own interpretation · 3 No basis given · 2 Not checked yet

Show all 26 claims

  • Probably not a substantial claim. 12
  • It may state two separate claims as one. 16
23 of 23
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    España ofrece en muchos casos la lengua de contacto entre los grupos indígenas.

    “Ademis Espaiia ofrece en muchos casos la lengua de contacto.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    En 1994 una avalancha gigantesca de tierra devastó la cuenca del río Paez.

    “En el aiio 1994 una avalancha gigantesca de tierra desvast6 la cuenca del rio Paez.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    La presencia de los blancos terminó con conflictos entre los pueblos indígenas mismos.

    “Esto fue posible por la presencia de los blancos, que termin6 con conflictos entre 10s pueblos indigenas mismos; si se quiere llamarla asi, una paz hispinica.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Los curanderos Paez suelen interpretar las señas que les proporciona el uso de la coca.

    “Estos suelen interpretar las seiias que les proporciona el uso de la coca.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Los Inga son renombrados por su aprendizaje tierra adentro.

    “renombrados por su aprendizaje tierra adentro”
5 of 5

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

1 of 1

Citations

Cites

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. SCHINDLER, Helrnut y Franz FAUST 1988 "lndianische Arzneihandler in Siidwest-Kolurnbien". Mijnchner Beitrage zur Volkerkunde 1. Festschrift Laszlo Vajda. SEIJAS, Haydee 1969a "The Medical System of the Sibundoy Indians". Ph.D. Thesis. Tulane University.
  2. TANDIOY JANSASOY, Francisco 1987 "Muscuycuna y tapiacuna: Sueiios y agiieros en inga y castellano". Pasto: Co- mite de Educacion lnga de la Organizacion Musu Runacuna. TAUSSIG, Michael 1980 "Folk Healing and the Structure of Conquest in Southwest Colombia". Journal of Latin American Lore 6.2: 217-278. 1982 "El curanderismo popular y la estructura de la conquista en el suroeste de Colombia". America lndigena 42.4: 559-614. 1984 "History as Sorcery". Representations 7: 87-109.

Metadata

Authors
Schindler, H., & Faust, F. X.
Affiliations
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PE)
Venue
Anthropologica
Published
2000-03-24
Volume
18
Issue
18
Pages
281-294
ISSN
  • 0254-9212 (ISSN-L)
  • 2224-6428
OpenAlex
W2123714595
Cited by
2
References
9
Citations by year
2018: 1
FWCI
6.67
Type
journal article
Language
es
Open access
Locations
  • Anthropologica (publishedVersion)
  • Americanae (AECID Library) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Indigenous Studies in Latin America
  • Social Sciences › Anthropology › Indigenous Cultures and History
  • Social Sciences › Anthropology › Anthropological Studies and Insights
Keywords
curanderos, interethnic relations, traditional healers, Afro-Colombian communities, indigenous peoples

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