Differences between Kallawaya-Andean and Greek-European humoral theory

Joseph W. Bastien

Social Science & Medicine, 1989, vol. 28, issue 1, 45-51

Abstract: Kallawaya Andeans and Classic Greeks have a humoral epistemology based on analogical thinking and systems of correspondence, but they are culturally different systems. This does not imply that the latter system derived from the earlier but rather that Andeans and Greeks emphasized the relationship of body and humors to climate and land. Ethnographic data indicates that Kallawaya Andeans have a topographical-hydraulic model for understanding the physiology of their bodies. This differs from Greek-European humoral theory, which scholars consider the basis of Latin American folk medicine, in that Greeks try to balance their body fluids, whereas Kallawayas understand their fluids in centripetal and centrifugal motion. Kallawayas conceive of the body in more holistic concepts than Greeks and Europeans who distinguish between thought and matter, body and soul, and inner and outer. The fact that Kallawayas employ hot/cold, and wet/dry categories suggest either that they adopted this from Greek European humoral theory from the Spaniards or that these categories were pre-Columbian. Epistemological similarities facilitate the adoption into Kallawaya ethnophysiology of foods, medicines, and illnesses classified as hot/cold, and wet/dry in Spanish herbal books, which were used in the Andes after the Conquest.

Keywords: humoral; theory; Andean; medicine; Greek; medicine; body; concepts (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1989
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