Wellness Beyond Words: Maya Compositions of Speech and Silence in Medical Care

1: Between Belief and Relief: Apologue of Maya Wellness Seeking In Medias Res

15 1 between belief and relief Apologue of Maya Wellness Seeking In Medias Res Hidden in the shaman’s prayer, lurking in the sorcerer’s contagious stare, and in the afterglow of the healer’s sympathetic care—the still twittering voices of magic and religion. Dare we give the voices chase, follow them into Fraser’s thicket to face the agéd figure beneath the Golden Bough? Ask—not aloof, but beside Evans-Pritchard and the Azande with the ruins of that old granary and the human life at our feet—“why?” not “how”? —T. S. Harvey, “Humbling, Frightening, and Exalting” (2006) maya wellness seeking in everyday life After a two-hour bus trip, Xuan and Per finally reached the western highland market of San Francisco el Alto. Their small child, Tun, had been sick for three days, but the family hadn’t taken him to the clinic yet because they desperately needed any money that they might earn from sales made at the regional market. When they arrived at San Francisco, Xuan stayed back by the buses, looking for a spot among the other men to setup a display for his handmade axe handles. Per, with little Tun strapped securely to her back and bundle of vegetables balanced atop her head, went up the hill toward the market to find a place under the low-hanging colorful tarps that lined the market’s streets where she could sell her produce. As little Tun lay against his mother’s back, enfolded in the woven womb of her tzut (carrying blanket) his mother could feel his every movement and he hers. As she recalled, he did not seem to be comforted that day by the sound of her heartbeat or the warmth of her body. He groaned and squirmed with a kind of sustained agitation that worried her and Xuan. To lessen his discomfort Per reached her hand 16 chapter 1 around her back and lovingly patted him on his underside while gently bouncing him up and down, saying in a low voice, “Sus . . . jas uwach ri uyab’?” (“Jesus, what is the essence of his illness?”). On the other side of the market, Xuan patiently watched as shoppers walked by his neatly displayed axe handles that lay on the ground before him. He, too, was wondering what could be wrong with their firstborn child. “La xub’an umak?” (“Had he sinned?”) “La xub’an jun ch’o’j?” (“Had he mistreated anyone?”) “La xuk’ia kre’j?” (“Had he wanted something or envied someone in an excessive way?”). Could it have been the snarling of the non-cat (a sorcerer’s companion spirit) on the rooftop the week before? Why had his son met with sickness? A few feet away at the busy intersection, Xuan could hear the voices of traveling medicine men over loud speakers, roaring above the noise of buses, soaring over the market. Between “traditional” healing and modern bio-medical care, straddling the public and the private, the local and the global, stands Maya mobile medicine in Guatemala. Traveling Maya medical salespeople—whether on “soapboxes,” over loudspeakers in open air markets, up and down the aisles of crowded buses, or in town squares—are everywhere, yet knowledge of their health messages, goods and services is missing from the socio-scientific literature that stretches from anthropology to bio-medicine. (Harvey 2011) Beyond the church, Per managed to find a dry spot for her and Tun under the makeshift tarps that hung above the market’s outer walls. After painstakingly arranging her display on a colorful piece of plastic on the ground and organizing the tomatoes and green peppers, she began nursing Tun and waiting for customers. Amid the clamor of bartering voices, the low cries of babies, the sounds of laughter and the infrequent squeals of animals, Per overheard an older woman a few displays away giving someone advice on how to relieve a child’s stomachache. Judging from the design of the older woman’s po’t (handwoven blouse) Per suspected that she was from the town of Chiquimula, and so surely the woman would know the current Nima’ Catholic priest, a K’iche’ Maya who was born and raised near Totonicapán. As they began Between Belief and Relief 17 to talk Per learned that the woman was an iyom (midwife) and an old friend of Padre Geronimo’s family. After conversing for some time...