Maya Medicine: Traditional Healing in Yucatán

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anthropology ■ medicine “Readable, concise, and never overreaching the data at hand, this book has value for present and future students of Maya culture and botany.” —Plant Science Bulletin The traditions of plant use and ethnomedicine applied by curing specialists in the state of Yucatán and the adjoining states of Campeche and Quintana Roo have been passed from one generation to the next since the colonial period. The practice is at once deeply spiritual and empirically oriented, addressing problems of body, spirit, and mind. In addition to plants, traditional healers incorporate western medicine as well as prayer, massage, and magical practices. As a result, the curer may act as doctor, priest, or psychiatrist. In Maya Medicine, Marianna Appel Kunow traces the entire process ofcuring,fromthetimethecurersbegintoacquiretheirskills,through the administration of treatment, all the while examining the relationship between current curing practices and their colonial antecedents. Marianna Appel Kunow holds a PhD in Latin American Studies. She teachesSpanishandmythologyatSoutheasternLouisianaUniversity. ■ cover illustration: Marianna Appel Kunow cover design: Mina Yamashita university of new mexico press unmpress.com ■ 800-249-7737 ISBN 978-0-8263-2865-6 ™xHSKIMGy328656zv*:+:!:+:! ...