Updates
Saturday 9th November 2019
As a postscript to the final concluding views published in the blog https://www.andeanmedicine.net/blog/wider-lessons-and-cautionary-points-... I should turn to the population largely...
Saturday 9th November 2019
Ecuador has experienced many changes since I first went there as a graduate student in 1976 and many very recently, sharing the rapid change consequent on accelerating global dynamics. It...
Wednesday 24th April 2019
April signals spring and the round of a new conference season. This year the Society for American Archaeology meetings were being held in Albuquerque New Mexico, and thence I went, hard...
Friday 8th March 2019
Within the context of a formal academic study, there has been little scope for offering a more informal, even humorous perspective on Traditional Medicine. But readers might be interested...
Saturday 2nd March 2019
In the last blog ‘Concluding Thoughts’, (30 July 2018), I sought to summarise the achievements of MEDICINE project in its first two years to date, having completed two of the three main...
Saturday 2nd March 2019
Part of the overall remit of the project is to take a longer term view and plan for future research that can draw upon the insights gained from the present project and build these into new...
Monday 30th July 2018
As indicated in the last blog ‘Moving Ahead to the Final Goals’ http://www.andeanmedicine.net/blog/moving-ahead-final-goals-1532718988 the second phase of the project, centring on the...
Friday 27th July 2018
It has been a very productive two months for MEDICINE project, following the successful presentation at the MERC Congress in Edinburgh back in May (https://www.andeanmedicine.net/blog/...
Wednesday 13th June 2018
The nature of the work with MEDICINE project produces rather irregular blogs. So, after a series of posts describing the interview stage with the three participant communities of Salasaka,...
Friday 16th February 2018
As a sub section of the part of the questionnaire dealing with perceptions and understandings of health and illness (see The Spiritual Source of Health: of God and Wak'a) respondents were...
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...
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...
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. Mature adults from...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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. At present we are...
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...
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...
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