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Medicine of the Maya
contents
- Traditional knowledge of the Mayas
- The medical system
- Doctors and shamans
- Today's treatment of diseases
- Medicinal plants of the Maya
- Chilli
- Cooperation instead of exclusion
- Literature:
The ancestors of the Maya settled around 2600 BC. In Yucátan, and its culture reached its zenith around 250 AD. Around 900 AD, the high civilization drowned, in the north the Maya civilization flowed into the Toltec, in the south the survivors left the cities and returned to a simpler way of life.
The medicine of the Mayas. Picture: M.V. Photography - fotolia Geography professor Jared Diamond summed up the reasons for the decline: First, too many farmers in too much of the countryside were over-cultivated; secondly, people destroyed the forest, eroded mountain slopes and shrank farmland; third, the fractious Mayans fought for the shrinking resources; Fourth, climate change led to prolonged droughts, and fifth, the rulers did not address these issues but demanded food from the peasants, erected monuments and enriched themselves at short notice.
When the Spaniards conquered Central America in the 16th century, the great Mayan cities were overgrown with rainforest. They drove out the Indians and killed everyone who resisted. European diseases claimed enormous casualties among the natives, who had developed no immune defense against them and were also weakened by hunger and exploitation.
The Spaniards also destroyed the chronicles in which the indigenous people wrote down their history, religion, culture and knowledge. Only four codices were spared from the fire in which Diego de Landa had the books burned.
Traditional knowledge of the Mayas
Many traditions of the Mayas were lost, but in the extant codices healing knowledge of the natives is handed down. So they used the bark of Gumbo Lombo against sunburn, a kind of Begonia against snake venom.
Today, science knows at least 900 plants that Maya used as medicinal herbs, such as aloe and agave, papaya and passion flower. An all-round remedy was Turnera diffusa, a saffron that smells like lemon.
The Damiana plant used them against fatigue and fatigue, but also against insomnia. Damiana used the indigenous people of Mexico for asthma. It has a diuretic effect and relieves cramps. It also promotes blood circulation in the abdomen and served as a sexual enhancer; the Maya brewed a tea with the leaves.
The medical system
In Mexico, traditional medicine has survived to this day and has its roots in the period before the Spanish conquest. But as the written sources of the Mayan civilization are largely lost, it remains unclear whether the ancestors of today's indigenous people had the same ideas.
Although the Spanish conquerors destroyed the sources, they even wrote down diseases known to the locals including symptoms, treatments, medicinal plants and magical rituals, for example in the Ritual de los Bacabes and in the Libros de los Chilam Balam.
Thus, the indigenous people knew no difference between organic and mental illnesses, but they separated between the supposed natural or metaphysical cause of illnesses. If practical methods of curing ailments failed, the indigenous people quickly assumed a supernatural cause.
Generally diseases had their origin in a disturbed harmony. Body, soul, society and cosmic energy related to each other. Who broke the rules of this wholeness, the one or the sick. The healers rely on religious rituals as well as medicinal plants to restore balance.
"Bad winds" were supposed to cause disease by invading the human body. "Winds" referred to both the air and spirits. Exposed to these "bad winds" were people who left the area of the village / town that were exhausted from work or sexually agitated.
What psychology today calls a trauma also promoted disease. Especially children who had experienced terrible conditions suffered from nightmares, sweats, diarrhea and lethargy. Sorrow, too, could trigger these symptoms.
The "evil eye" led to resentment. This could lead to the death of the envied when the maleficent visited a sorcerer who victimized the victim. Above all this was an idea of the cosmos that divided the world into four directions, and to which the colors of white, yellow, black, and red were assigned.
Similar to Chinese medicine, the Maya also distinguished between hot and cold, balancing the extremes for the path to health. Those who overheated and jumped into icy water could easily fall ill, for example, from headaches. As in China, "hot" or "cold" in food meant not necessarily the measurable temperature, but the supposed effect of the herbs.
Doctors and shamans
The chronicles of the early colonial period call various health professions. This included the "healer, skillful in cases of any art and occupation," who commits himself. This suited a shaman.
Then there was the ah ts'ak, a general practitioner, and Chirugen, and the ah pul, a sorcerer who spells diseases. These sorcerers, too, focused on certain sufferings. The ah pul unenel, for example, damaged his victims with fatigue. The ah tok was a bather and bloodlust who ah ohel tu kinam xiuoob a herbalist.
Shamanic healing art. Image: fotogerstl - fotolia These Mayan medical specialists were ambivalent: they were able to treat and trigger illnesses, heal and kill.
Traditionally thinking descendants of the Maya still believe that healers / sorcerers can send out evil winds. Healers do not like to work in the horde of another healer, because they fear that they will bewitch them. Today, one of the main tasks of healers / sorcerers is to remove magic spells from other specialists.
Today's descendants of the Mayas also know many different healers. The parteras are women who work as midwives, the Hueseros treat broken bones, sprains, strains and dislocations. The curanderos treat those who fail home remedies. The Zahorines are dream interpreters and fortune-tellers, the shamans use both medicinal plants and spiritual journeys.
Shamans call on Catholic saints as well as Mayan gods. They seek holy places like caves and quote the Triune God, the Virgin Mary, the winds and water spirits.
Today's treatment of diseases
Traditional healers of the Maya explain diseases naturally, psychosomatically or metaphysically. The boundaries between these aspects flow into each other. To make a diagnosis, the healer examines how a modern doctor, the exact symptoms and history of the disease.
Then he asks for details about the social environment of those affected and recent events. Did something unusual happen during field work or hunting? Was there any unexplained death? Does the patient have enemies? If there was a dispute, there is an important conflict?
An essential element of any treatment of disease is the close relationship between healer and patient. Successful healings are probably due to a method that we call here talk therapy. Psychotherapy is also about re-establishing a mental imbalance, although ideas of cosmic forces are not only foreign to them, but modern psychology strictly rejects such explanations.
The healer judges whether there is a natural cause, or demons like resentment of others. He goes into an altered state of consciousness and focuses on the sastun, a small stone in which he supposedly sees prophecies.
According to the healer, if there is a natural cause, depending on the nature of the disease, it uses various means: teas, tinctures, enemas or smoke. For example, alcoholics drink a mixture of alcohol and Zorillo. If those affected drink alcohol again, they will vomit.
The natural causes are the Awas. Most of all, they seek out children's homes and, for example, enter the body when the mother is disgusted by a certain smell or greedy for a particular food. Children's diseases indicate the food that is at stake. So have children with tomato awas red spots on the body.
The aigres, the evil winds, come into the body in different ways. The winds can come from (physically) filthy people, then cow dung and cold food help. Envious people send out winds that heat their heads and cause tumors and anemia.
The color of the urine indicates whether "warm" or "cold" treatments are in demand. The healer treats warm diseases with cold medicine and vice versa. By doing so, he means triggering a reaction that balances the temperature.
Excessive sweating and fever are classic warm diseases that are treated with cold remedies such as avocado, papaya, melon or purslane. For example, paralysis or impotence are cold. Coffee, sweet potato, amaranth or orange helps.
Fighting metaphysical causes is more difficult. The healer / shaman tries to travel in a state of trance into the three levels of the cosmos to confront the "evil wind". He threatens the wind to destroy him if he does not leave the patient alone. Numbers and good spirits call the shaman in the ritual, and they are to support him in the fight against the "wind". Treatments are scheduled nine times and are most effective on Tuesday and Friday.
The spiritual superstructure is syncretic today. Remains of the Mayan cosmos are joined by Christian rites. For example, the shaman crosses himself or calls on Christian saints, who in turn carry aspects of the Mayan gods.
The historic Maya sacrificed to the gods to persuade them to perform a healing. For example, they pierced their penis with a thorn and sacrificed the blood to the gods.
From the Ritual de los Bacabes, a tradition of the historical medical system, we also know more than 60 medicinal plants.
Medicinal plants of the Maya
In 600 AD, the Maya came into contact with the tobacco and used it for ritual purposes, as clay pots with traces of tobacco show.
They chewed tobacco for toothaches and inflammation in the throat, they used it as a "toothpaste", they mixed it with lime and chilli to a paste, which they chewed to stay awake.
Tobacco plant as a medicine. Image: Wolfgang Cibura - fotolia They rolled the leaves, lit them on one side and inhaled the smoke through the mouth to heal respiratory problems.
They made tobacco tinctures, rubbed their skin and protected themselves from insect bites. In addition, this tincture helped against pain in the muscles and rheumatic complaints. The Maya also used this remedy for snake bites.
Today indigenous people in Mexico use the leaves for headaches, put them in alcohol and so relieve swelling, bruises and sprains. Tobacco pastes are supposed to help against acne.
The Maya consumed alcohol in excessive bouts. According to missionary Diego de Landa (1524-1579), they brewed a drink of honey, water and an unknown root.
De Landa wrote: "The Indians were extremely unrestrained in drinking and intoxication; from this grew many evils; such as that they killed each other (...) They made wine from honey, water and the root of a certain tree, which they planted for it, so that the wine became very strong and foul-smelling; they danced, chatted and sat together in twos and fours to dine; and after dinner the cup-holders, who usually did not get drunk, fetched some large vats for drinking, until at last there was general commotion; and the women were very worried when their husbands came home drunk. "
Such drinking served a higher purpose. The Maya saw intoxication as a way to connect with ghosts and gods. That's why they depicted drunks with serpentine lines on their mouths, showing that the soul was running out of the body. Bark they brewed from bark, honey and water, chi from the juice of agave.
They also used mushrooms containing psilocybin and the poison of amphibians, which is comparable to LSD.
Chilli
Chilli peppers, fresh or dried, were not just part of the Mayan cuisine, they were an essential means of relieving discomfort. They used envelopes with chilli for muscle cramps and nerve pain.
Chilli dilates the blood vessels and thus promotes blood circulation. The body can then carry away toxins and germs faster.
Chilli heats the body, it works against arthritis, it regulates the temperature - in hot countries it cools and warms in cold climates. They work against allergies and stop the growth of viruses and bacteria. It dissolves the mucus for colds, makes the throat and neck free.
Chili as a remedy. Image: photocrew - fotolia The capsacin in the pods stimulates the saliva as well as the gastric juice, it accelerates the movement of the intestine and thus promotes digestion. Since Chilli speeds up the metabolism, it helps to reduce the weight. It helps detoxify the liver and drives the urine flow. Chilli works against constipation and bloating, stomach and intestinal problems. Because capsacin stimulates the circulation, it also prevents thrombosis.
Cooperation instead of exclusion
The Mayans are among the Indians of North America, the Dalai Lama or "witches" to the stars of the esoteric scene. A myriad of books on "The Mayan Secret Knowledge" mixes discomfort in the modern age with presumably fictitious worldly wisdom and a dash of mysticism, and this stew usually has only the name in common with the Maya.
The ancient high culture of Central America lends itself to such postmodern mysticism: Firstly, their knowledge is actually largely secret until today, namely burned by the Spaniards. On the other hand, allegedly revealed secrets for miracle seekers and quacks are the elixir of their potions. In addition, the Maya themselves believed in the supernatural, which acts like a magnet in a religious scene.
Most recently, the Mayans caused a sensation because their calendars were said to predict the end of the world in December 2012. This was not true, because this month ended only one cycle (as Christians in 2000 a millennium), but the apocalypse disciples were happy to believe the nonexistent prophecy.
Even for science, much of the Mayan culture is in the dark. Even today, researchers are still discovering temples, tombs and entire settlements in the rainforest of Guatemala. The writer Douglas Preston inspired the secrets of the Maya's lost writings on the novel "The Codex," in which a plastic artisan knows the hiding place of a Mayan codex that receives all the healing knowledge of the indigenous; Scientists and pharmaceutical companies are now on the hunt for the mythical "White City" on the mosquito coast of Honduras.
Not only esoterics and novelists, but also European physicians are interested in the healing of the Mayans today. For example, medical students of the Mayan descendants traveled through clinics in Switzerland to discuss the treatment of cancer with physicians and doctors there. Until 2015, the research project was conducted at the Department of Environmental Nature and Environmental Social Sciences of ETH Zurich, where the researchers held 65 interviews with healers from various Mayan peoples.
Instead of mystical transfiguration or colonial contempt, Western medicine is concerned with enlightenment and partnership. Western knowledge system and Maya concepts could only be understood and evaluated in a cultural context. In addition to respect, it was therefore about openness and interest. The aim of the project is a summary of Mayan knowledge about cancer. This in turn would benefit the descendants of the Maya, who will again have a written compendium on their medicine. (Dr. Utz Anhalt)
Literature:
Sven Gronemeyer: The indigenous medical system. Illness and healing. Homework as part of the language course "Language and Culture of the Yucatecan Maya" under the direction of PD Dr. med. Nikolai pit. Bonn March 2001