El cuerpo, el alma, la palabra. Medicina nahua en la Sierra de Texcoco, Artes de México, México, 2020, 208 p. [Portada, índice, prólogo de Jacques Galinier] (original) (raw)
Related papers
2015
The paper describes and analyzes concisely four of the most frequent infant illnesses among the Nahuas in the Sierra de Texcoco (Mexico), placing them in the general frame of the characteristic pathologies –“physical or material”, and “spiritual”– characteristic of the region. These are genuine “cultural” diseases that can only be treated by experienced relatives or ritual specialists. In the article the basic characteristics are analyzed in detail by etiology, course and respective therapeutic methods, showing how the illnesses are perceived by the Nahuas through the information collected during the ethnographic research carried out in the region. At the same time, the article reflects about the complex relationship between the Western and the Nahua medical systems that coexist in the Sierra and points out the existen- ce of an intermediate field of therapy, distinctive and camouflaged, that offers answers to the childhood diseases: the family medicine or domestic medicine.
2012
" Amores de manantial " es el relato en español sobre un joven de la Sierra de Texcoco que fue apresado por los ahuaques o espíritus dueños del agua. Juan, hijo de una partera de Guadalupe Amanalco, contrajo nupcias dentro de un manantial con la Reina Xochitl, la gobernante del mundo ahuaque. La recuperación del espíritu de Juan fue un episodio complejo en el que intervinieron dos graniceros. La historia, narrada por su madre, describe cómo los graniceros entregaron ofrendas para reponer los objetos que Juan había roto y que le valieron la agresión, cómo crearon desavenencias en las relaciones entre Juan y la Reina con olores apestosos y cómo, fi nalmente, aprovechando la ruptura del matrimonio, rescataron el espíritu de Juan y lo devolvieron al cuerpo del enfermo. Pero, ya curado, Juan seguía creyendo que vivía en un lujoso palacio dentro del agua. El texto ofrece información novedosa sobre la naturaleza del mundo de las divinidades del agua en la Sierra de Texcoco y los ritos de curación. Paradójicamente esta información aparece enunciada en español. El testimonio se presenta con un texto introductorio que lo inscribe en el panorama lingüístico y en el contexto cosmológico nahua serrano y suministra algunas claves de lectura para su correcta comprensión. Se dirige tanto a etnólogos versados en cosmologías mesoamericanas como a estudiosos de la cultura nahua y a lectores no especializados con curiosidad en estos temas. " The Fountain Lovers " is a story in Spanish about a young man from the Sierra de Texcoco who was captured by the ahuaques or the chief water spirits. Juan, son of a midwife of Guadalupe Amanalco, was wed within a fountain to Queen Xochitl, the ruler of the ahuaque world. The retrieval of Juan's spirit was a complex episode in which two graniceros (weather specialists) intervened. The story, narrated by his mother, describes how the graniceros delivered offerings to replace the objects which Juan had broken causing the aggression, how they created disagreements in the relations between Juan and the Queen with stinking smells, and how, finally, taking advantage of the breakdown of the marriage, they rescued Juan's spirit and returned it to the body of the invalid. But even when cured, Juan continued to believe that he lived in a luxurious palace under the water. The text offers original information on the nature of the world of the water divinities in the Sierra de Texcoco and the rites of healing. Paradoxically, this information is given in Spanish. The testimony is presented with an introductory text which places it in the linguistic panorama and in the cosmological context of the Nahua mountain dwellers and provides a few keys to reading with the correct understanding. It is meant for ethnologists versed in Mesoamerican cosmologies and those studying Nahua culture, as well as for non-specialized readers curious about these topics.
2012
Nezahualcóyotl, the Tlatoani of the Texcocan Empire, was the monarch who designed a regional irrigation system and announced rules to regulate the distribution and administration of water. Tlaloc, the Mexicas' god of rain, was identified with a mountain and provided rain in the region. In the Sierra of Texcoco today, both the monarch and the god are the one and only figure: Tlaloc-Nezahualcóyotl, King of the Sea, to whom the natives pray for rain on which their water supply depends. How did this transformation occur? A revision of the pre-Hispanic and colonial documentary sources and the ethnological myths allows the clues to be traced. Syncretism is irrelevant in this context: the problem is why and how the Nahuas have reread and updated their own history. Nezahualcóyotl, el tlatoani del Imperio Texcocano, fue el monarca que diseñó el sistema regional de regadíos y dictó las ordenanzas para regular la distribución y gestión del agua. Tláloc, el dios pluvial de los mexicas, se identificaba con una montaña y otorgaba las lluvias regionales. Hoy, en la Sierra de Texcoco, ambos son una misma y única figura: Tláloc-Nezahualcóyotl, simbólico Rey del Mar al que se le pide la lluvia y del que depende el flujo del agua. ¿Cómo ha tenido lugar este proceso? El examen de las fuentes documentales, prehispánicas y coloniales, y de los mitos proporcionados por la etnografía permite rastrear las claves subyacentes. Más allá de la categoría de sincretismo, inservible en este con-texto, la cuestión radica en analizar el motivo y la forma en que los nahuas han releído y actualizado su propia historia.