Médicos y medicinas en el mundo peninsular maya colonial y decimonónico

Abstract

European contact with the indigenous peoples and African immigrants of New Spain led to the enrichment of their healing methods, although with time, some of these hybrid practices proved inadequate and were discontinued. In the colonial documents of Yucatan we can find this resulting mixture of Maya-Mesoamerican and European healing theories, the latter influenced by Asia and Africa. The interchanges between cultures gave rise to coincidences and endorsements, as well as rejections. Of particular note are the elemental ideas of “hot’’ and “cold,’’ as well as the onset of illnesses, therapies and bloodletting, which evolved simultaneously in both cultures. Some of these notions, however, were occasionally irreconcilable because of conflicting ideas over the nature of the human body, its diseases, and the ways a culture perceived the healing process, and, of course, religious beliefs.