MEDICINE Blog
Friday 16th February 2018
‘Health’ and ‘illness’ are very much words the meaning of which we take for granted according to our own understanding in the modern world we live in. Therefore, a key objective in the study is to understand what indigenous Andean people mean by these terms.
Monday 12th February 2018
The impact of the Spanish Conquest in the 16th century has left a profound and enduring legacy upon the indigenous peoples of the Andes at every level of life, impacting deeply into their sense of identity and their understanding of the nature of the world they live in.
Friday 9th February 2018
Out in the rural indigenous communities, interviewing people about their health beliefs and practices, it becomes very clear how socially disadvantaged many still are.
Friday 9th February 2018
The disposition of indigenous settlement throughout the sierra region of Ecuador (also Peru), is an historical relict of the early post Spanish Conquest re-organisation of the conquered territories and a process (called ‘reducciones’) that concentrated the much-reduced populations into European s
Tuesday 23rd January 2018
The Health Centre at Zuleta Comuna is an excellent example of Intercultural health provision when it is functioning well. Sadly, this is not often the case around the country, as, despite policy guidance set out in Ecuador’s 2008 constitution that indigenous people enjoy the right to have their...
Tuesday 23rd January 2018
Doña Concepción is a traditional healer and midwife who lives in one of the scattered rural communities in the wider Zuleta catchment area. Her story is not at all unusual for indigenous people who work as healers throughout Ecuador.
Tuesday 23rd January 2018
I’m happy to report that the interview stage of the project is now well underway, and in addition to surveying the people of Salasaka in Imbabura province in the Central Sierra region of Ecuador, I am including the Comuna of Zuleta in Imbabura province in the north.
Sunday 10th December 2017
More than a month has passed since I attended the Dia de los Difuntos celebrations in Salasaka, and I have returned there since to start the survey phase of the project.
Sunday 12th November 2017
The commemoration of death and the veneration of ancestors is one of the most recognizably ‘human’ traits, observable in archaeological contexts dating back at least into the Upper Paleolithic period in Europe, and possibly earlier still in the Middle East and in sub-Saharan Africa.
Thursday 19th October 2017
During my recent visit to the indigenous township of Salasaka, we happened upon a family ritual, commonly conducted in these regions in the aftermath of a funeral, in the form of a group of people celebrating at a small local cross roads around a bonfire.
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