Immediate download Plants and health new perspectives on the health environment plant nexus ethnobio
Plants And Health New Perspectives On The Health environment plant Nexus ethnobiology 1st Edition
Elizabeth Anne Olson John Richard Stepp Eds
Visit to download the full and correct content document: https://textbookfull.com/product/plants-and-health-new-perspectives-on-the-health-en vironment-plant-nexus-ethnobiology-1st-edition-elizabeth-anne-olson-john-richard-ste pp-eds/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant download maybe you interests ...
Plants And Health New Perspectives On The Health environment plant Nexus ethnobiology 1st Edition Elizabeth Anne Olson John Richard Stepp Eds
Environmental health sourcebook : basic consumer health information about the environment and its effects on human health. Fifth Edition. Edition Omnigraphics
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made.
Printed on acid-free paper
This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature
The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Preface
The case studies collected here are concerned with the theme of plants, humans, and health from anthropological perspectives. The genesis for this volume was a session entitled, “Plants & Health: Producing Anthropologies at the Human-Environment-Health Nexus,” at the American Anthropological Association annual meeting held in Washington D.C. in November 2014. During the session, and spilling into the rest of the afternoon, we engaged in lengthy conversations about the connections between our ethnographic research and the importance of this type of research at this moment in time. Since the conference, we have toiled with these topics further, pushed deeper into our own research, grappled with various theoretical perspectives, refined the case studies (and even added some new ones).
This volume showcases current ethnographic accounts of the ways that people use plants to promote human health and well-being. The goal in this volume is to highlight some contemporary examples of how plants are central to various aspects of healthy environments and healthy minds and bodies. The authors employ diverse analytic frameworks, including interpretive and constructivist, politicalecological, systems theory, phenomenological, and critical studies of the human-environment-state interactions. The case studies represent a wide range have of geographies and contemplate a range of the health appeals that plants and herbs.
The volume begins by considering how plants may intrinsically be “healthful”
and the notion that ecosystem health may be a literal concept deployed in contemporary efforts to increase awareness of environmental degradation. The characteristics of specific plant species, and the role of specific species in ecosystems, are significant for socially-attuned conservation. Thinking more about the
relationships between the individual and the plants, the production of herbal and plant-based remedies may be therapeutic for the producer who has the advantages of experiencing the plants through the various stages of product production. An example of a woman who produces medicinal plant remedies highlights the apparent embodiment of the healthful attributes of the plant-based remedies she makes and sells. The volume continues with the exploration of the ways in which medically pluralistic societies demonstrate the entanglements of state and citizen. In other examples, we v
vi
Preface
find that profit-driven models of extraction and production of medicinal plant products can be related to health sovereignty for the state and perhaps also for individuals. Several of the chapters in this volume work to unpack the epistemologies of medicinal plant knowledge and the globalization of medicinal plant knowledge. The translocal and global networks of medicinal plant knowledge are pivotal to productions of medicinal and herbal plant remedies that are used by people in all varieties of societies and cultural groups. Humans produce health through various means and interact with our environments, especially plants, in order to promote health.
Cedar City, UT, USA
Elizabeth Anne Olson
Gainesville, FL, USA
John Richard Stepp
Acknowledgements
Creating this volume has been a wonderful collaboration between the various authors, editors, and reviewers. A number of individuals have
helped bring this collection of ethnographies together. We’d especially like to thank the supportive team at Springer, Eric Stannard and Hemalatha Gunasekaran, along with their colleagues.
Our deep appreciation also extends to the reviewers, both anonymous and otherwise, who have read and commented on various versions and drafts of the chapters.
Finally, thank you to the authors who have come along on this journey and have worked through multiple iterations of their contributions to provide great insights into the arena of Plants and Health.
vii
Contents
Traditional and Nontraditional Medicine in a Yucatec Maya Community ...................................................................... 1
Eugene N. Anderson
Becoming-Plant: Jamu in Java, Indonesia .................................................... 17
Julie Laplante
Medicinal Plants in Bangladesh: Planting Seeds of Care in the Weeds of Neoliberalism ........................................................................ 67
Karen McNamara
Shaping Strong People: Napo Runa Therapeutic Narratives
Nora C. Bridges
Using Plants as Medicines and Health Foods in Southern Jalisco.............. 117
Elizabeth A. Olson
WhatIfThere Is a Cure Somewhere in the Jungle?
States of Emergence in Medicinal Plant Becomings .................................... 133
Natasha-Kim Ferenczi
Transmission, Sharing, and Variation of Medicinal Plant Knowledge and Implications for Health
John Richard Stepp
About the Editors
Elizabeth Anne Olson is an assistant professor of anthropology at Southern Utah University in Cedar City, Utah. Her anthropological research has looked at traditional and non-biomedical healing systems in Mexico, Utah, the Bolivian Amazon, and Western Europe. Her work with traditional healing systems has led to a focus on the
intersections among health, environments, economic markets, and community development. Her past work has focused on indigenous medicinal plant knowledge, and she is currently studying the ways that globalization influences the transmission of medicinal plant knowledge and use. Dr. Olson’s current research concerns the globalization of medicinal plant knowledge and the relationships between indigenous, professional, and lay uses of medicinal plant knowledge across various ethnomedical systems. Her work connects to topics including the health sovereignty movement, as well as other social justice and community-based conservation initiatives. She frequently collaborates with community-based social justice projects in Mexico and the USA. Dr. Olson serves on the Board of Directors of the Culture and Agriculture section of the American Anthropological Association and is the Conference & Awards Coordinator for the Society of Ethnobiology. She is co-editor along with Cynthia Fowler of the monograph series Global Change/Global Health for the University of Arizona Press.
John Richard Stepp is a professor at the University of Florida in the Department of Anthropology and Tropical Conservation and Development program. He is also a visiting professor at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy, and was in residence at the University of Hawaii as the Wilder Professor of Botany.
He has conducted biocultural conservation research over the last two decades throughout the tropics, especially in the Maya Forest and in the Greater Mekong Region of Southeast Asia. His research explores persistence, change, and variation of traditional ecological knowledge and ethnobiology. Much of this work has focused on wild food plants and medicinal plants. His work has also focused on patterns and causes in the distribution of biological and cultural diversity (biocultural diversity) on both regional and global scales. Other interests include the anthropology of food, medical anthropology, visual anthropology, social science xi xii
About the Editors
research methods, GIS and land use change, and the anthropology of climate
change. He is also involved in documentary and ethnographic film production on topics both related and unrelated to his primary research. He is the founding editor of the Journal of Ecological Anthropology and former editor-in-chief of the Journal of Ethnobiology. Along with Robert Voeks, he serves as an Ethnobiology series editor for Springer.
Contributors
Eugene N. Anderson Department of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside, CA, USA
Nora C. Bridges Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Natasha-Kim Ferenczi Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada
Julie Laplante School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Karen McNamara Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
Elizabeth A. Olson Department of History, Sociology, and Anthropology, Southern Utah University, Cedar City, UT, USA
John Richard Stepp Department of Anthropology and Tropical Conservation and Development Program, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
xiii
Traditional and Nontraditional Medicine
in a Yucatec Maya Community
Eugene N. Anderson
Abstract Traditional Yucatec Maya herbal medicine survives in eastern Quintana Roo. Here, both hmeen (curers/ritualists) and ordinary people continue to use traditional herbs, but fewer species over time and with more and more introduction not only of biomedical cures but also of folk cures from other parts of Mexico. The result is a free, open, dynamic system in which individuals choose what seems to work and what seems to offer hope.
Introduction
The Maya of the Yucatan Peninsula maintain an herbal medical tradition that is demonstrably very old. The people in question are the original “Maya,” those who call themselves Maayah. With the extension of that word to cover the whole language phylum, the language in question is now known as Yucatec (a Spanish word; the pseudo-Indigenous form “Yukatek” is incorrect). They were the builders of the northern lowlands cities such as Chichen Itza. How far south they extended into the central lowlands in Classic times is unknown; somewhere in the southern peninsula they gave way to their linguistic relatives the Cholans.
Depictions in pre-Columbian art show some of the plants now used medicinally, and show rituals that may include curing ones (personal observation of art in many sites and museums). Documents from the Spanish Conquest onward speak of it and show that the major herbs have been used at least since that time.
These documents include very good dictionaries, notably the quite early CalepinodeMotul(Arzápalo Marín 1996, orig. ca. 1600). Other sources include the astonishing RitualoftheBacabs(Arzápalo Marín 1987; Roys 1965), an early Maya
text in Spanish letters that details a series of rituals involving mystical and religious references to many animals and plants, several of them now used in curing; also the Book of the Jew, an eighteenth-century herbal-medical text (Barrera Marin and Barrera Vasquez 1983). With the modern age came extensive ethnobotanical research on the Maya, beginning with Ralph Roys’ classic Ethno-BotanyE.N. Anderson (*)
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA e-mail: eugene.anderson@ucr.edu
of the Maya (1976 [1931]) and continuing through the foundational work of Alfredo Barrera Vásquez and his son Alfredo Barrera Marín (Barrera Marín et al.
1976) to subsequent research climaxing in the definitive work of Arellano et al., listing 2166 species (Arellano Rodriguez et al. 2003).
Maya medicine can be divided into naturalistic and personalistic theories (Foster
1994), but the division is fuzzy. Naturalistic medicine, in George Foster’s terms, involves causation by natural things: insect stings, sunstroke, thorn stabs, animal bites, and the like. Personalistic causation involves active cause by a god, evil spirit, witch, or other entity working ill. The Maya are not always clear about causation.
More, their major causal category is “wind,” ik ’ , which can be either a normal natural wind or an evil spirit that appears only as a rush of air, and such spirits can be mindlessly harmful or mindfully malevolent.
My research was carried out between 1989 and 2007 in eastern Quintana Roo,
primarily in Chunhuhub but also in the nearby towns of Polyuc, Xpichil, Presidente Juarez, Margaritas, and others. These are agricultural towns, growing maize, vegetables, and fruit, and raising cattle and small livestock. Agriculture was an intensive form of the classic milpa(swidden) system, with maize the staple food and a vast variety of plants and animals either raised in the fields or taken in the highly managed forests. The area was at that time quite prosperous by rural Mexican standards, and lands were still held collectively under the ejido system. This has eroded since 2000, and private property is now general (Anderson and Anderson 2012). A national law passed in 1993 allowed ejidos to privatize, but those in central Quintana Roo were slow to do it; Chunhuhub did not even begin to break up its ejido land-holding system until 2005, and after that privatization proceeded gradually.
My research focused on ethnobiology, including agriculture, forest management, and traditional medicine (Anderson 2003, 2005, 2010a, 2010b, 2011, 2013; Anderson and Medina Tzuc 2005). In addition to widespread questioning of people
from all walks of life, I worked intensively with two hmeen(traditional healers and ritual specialists), Don Marcos Puc Batab of Presidente Juarez and Don José Cauich Canul of Polyuc. They were very different
individuals. Don Marcos was extremely traditional, essentially monolingual in Maya, and also a darkly saturnine person.
Don José was friendly, outgoing, eager to teach, fluent in Spanish, and highly eclectic in his curing.
In and around Chunhuhub, I recorded 350 herbal substances (almost all plants, but a few animals) used medicinally. This compares well with the 360 recorded by Ankli (Ankli 2000; Ankli et al. 1999a, 1999b) and with the few hundred medicinally used that are listed in Arellano Rodriguez et al. (2003).
Dimensions of Yucatec Maya Medicine
Yucatec Maya medicine is well described. Robert Redfield and Margaret Park
Redfield recorded an astonishing amount of data about it in the 1920s and on through the 1950s. In particular, their work in the town of Dzitas is a neglected gem
Traditional and Nontraditional Medicine in a Yucatec Maya Community 3 of ethnography and ethnology—one of the finest medical ethnographies of all time, unfortunately buried in an obscure report (Redfield and Redfield 1940).
More recently, Hernán García et al. (1999) have produced a fascinating synthesis of a relatively elite, intellectualized form of Yucatec Maya medicine and compared it with Chinese medicine. The Quintana Roo Maya theory of sicknesses and medical problems is fairly simple by
comparison to that described in their work. (The following is summarized from Anderson 2003; see documentation and references there.) The most obvious are direct naturalistic problems that anyone can identify as to cause and nature: stings, bites, rashes, minor injuries, broken bones, childbirth, and the like. Then come the many diseases caused by imbalance of hot and cold.
This is an indigenous medical theory that has been influenced by Renaissance Spanish medical theory introduced shortly after the Conquest (Foster 1994).
Both theories built on the recognition that extremes of environmental heat and cold can damage the body, and that extremes of bodily heat (fever) and cold (chills, hypothermia) are signs of sickness. Both made the logical connection, especially given the frequent observation that too much exposure to cold is very often followed by chills or fever or both, and that drinking cold liquids when overheated can bring vomiting or cramps or worse. Another observed result of overheat is that overexertion in the blazing Yucatan heat depletes salt very fast, and the result of sudden hyponatremia is weakness, shivering, a feeling of extreme chill, and—
without quick relief—collapse or even death. Being quite aware of the problem, the Maya eat a high-salt diet, take in a lot of salt with almost every meal, and carry salt with them to the fields when they work there. Unsurprisingly, indigenous theories of heating and cooling tended to fuse with Spanish ones though differences can still be observed.
With all these observations, it is reasonable that the Maya explain almost all internal conditions, from rheumatism to cancer and from stomach ache and diarrhea to heart attacks, by being suddenly chilled when overheated. Drinking a very cold drink when overheated usually causes stomach and digestive problems and is the usual cause of them. Cold air striking one’s knees can produce rheumatism in the knees.
Here, the line between naturalistic and personalistic theories becomes blurred.
Winds, ik ’ in Yucatec, range from purely natural and easily felt gusts of air to what anthropologists would call supernatural beings. Even the rain gods ( chaak) are thought of as winds. More common and dangerous are the k ’ asik’, “bad winds,”
which are disembodied harmful or evil forces. Some are not evidently conscious and are bad merely in their effects; others are actively malevolent. Mysterious winds that may be, but are not clearly, physical or conscious include the bok’olooch
“demon opossum” and the taankas ik’ “frenzy wind” or “paralysis wind,” both recorded by Robert and Margaret Redfield in Dzitas and Chan Kom as well as by myself in Chunhuhub (Redfield and Redfield 1940:63; Redfield and Villa Rojas
1934). In the Rituals of the Bacabs (Arzápalo Marín 1987), tankas is associated with
parrots and other birds, and that association is probably still current. Birds such as owls and nightjars are still bad omens, and the gentle little nightjars ( puhuy) that call all night are sometimes thought to be k’as ik’.
4
E.N. Anderson
More clearly personalistic are sicknesses sent as punishment by gods and saints (again a fusion of Maya and Renaissance Spanish ideas) and the very, very many sicknesses sent by witches. Witchcraft ( brujería) and witches ( brujos/as) apparently abound in the Yucatan, as noted by the Redfields and other observers. They usually send chronic, especially chronic but intermittent, conditions. They may be way,
“transformers,” who appear as goats or other animals. They work their evil especially on Tuesdays and Fridays. This is a purely Spanish reckoning that goes back to Roman paganism: those were the days of Mars and Venus, troublesome and
unlucky deities. Thus, anti-witch charms also are often best done on those days.
Finally, more ordinary, less harmful magic can be worked by ordinary people, as when a love-stricken youth tries to sprinkle dried and powdered hummingbird or flycatcher head in his girlfriend’s hair to make her love him. This widespread bit of Mexican folklore may have reached the Yucatec after the Spanish Conquest though the identification of hummingbird with love and flycatchers with passion is apparently very ancient.
Imperfectly blended with all this are varying degrees of knowledges of outside medical traditions. Most important, naturally, is biomedicine—specifically, the form of it taught and used in clinics in Quintana Roo, which runs largely to shots, antibiotic pills and salves, aspirin and other mild analgesics, and necessary surgical interventions in cases of difficult childbirth, major accidents, cancer, and the like.
Not only the concepts of germs and infection have been learned; more important in most people’s lives is the coming of awareness of diabetes and its alleged origin from eating sweets and overly processed foods. As in so many other parts of the world, diabetes has gone from virtually unknown to rampantly abundant in Maya towns in the last two generations, as comida chatarra (“junk food”) replaces whole-grain maize and nutrient-rich vegetables in the diet.
In 2007, a fully stocked and beautifully appointed clinic came to Chunhuhub, and modern biomedicine has swept the town (Anderson and Anderson 2012). The other communities of my research do not have such facilities, but they can come to Chunhuhub. Traditional midwifery is all but dead; hmeen lore is being forgotten.
Don Marcos and Don José have taught their sons, but their sons are active in other realms too, and do not preserve all the old knowledge. Younger people rely more and more on biomedicine, less and less on traditional healing, every generation now.
Family herbal medicine continues, however, because it is cheaper, easier to access, and often more effective than the medicine from the clínica. My work has had a modest share in this, since the herbal medical data in my 2003 book was drawn on by a group of local healers during the brief career of their natural- medicine clinic (Marín Martínez et al. 2008). It flourished briefly, providing good herbal products, massage, and the service of one of the parteras, but local residents knew the herbal medicine well enough to prevent the clinic from making a living.
Biomedicine is not the only external influence, however. Folk medicine from all over Mexico and some parts of the Caribbean is available. Spiritualism, in the version introduced to Mexico especially by Allan Kardek in the nineteenth century, is known in the towns, and is an indirect but important influence on Don José Cauich Canul. Conspicuously absent from Mayaland are the botánicas (traditional herbal
Traditional and Nontraditional Medicine in a Yucatec Maya Community 5
and spiritualist stores) so extremely abundant elsewhere in Mexico, but anyone visiting a large city has access to them; they supply spiritual and spiritualist remedies, and herbal remedies from all over Mexico.
The most striking thing about Maya medicine is that in practice these varied theories of disease have little effect. They have, in most cases, limited relevance because the Maya have learned empirically over thousands of years which herbs actually work for which conditions.
Thus, for instance, the fact that a skin rash may be due to a plant’s itchy hairs or leaf oils or to a bad wind striking the skin or to drinking cold liquid when overheated has little effect on the treatment; what does matter is that if it is a simple itch like a mosquito bite, it can be treated by tea of bark of chakmoolche’ ( Erythrina standleyana, extremely tannin-rich). Other tannin-rich barks are used to make skin washes, and apparently work reasonably well. Skin sores and rashes that hurt and continue without clearing up are treatable by k’anaan( Hamelia patens, which has an antibiotic in its leaves; Arvigo and Balick 1993:143); its virtues were already noted in the early Yucatec/Spanish dictionary CalepinodeMotularound 1600 (Arzápalo Marín 1996:409). Similarly, infected rashes and other infections can be treated by siipche’ ( Bunchosia swartziana). Anita Ankli found this tree contains a very effective antibiotic (Ankli 2000; Ankli et al. 1999a, 1999b). Ankli also found medicinal values in many other Maya healing plants. More have turned up subsequently. Still others need more study. (See also Berlin and Berlin 1996; Berlin et al. 2000, for the highland Tzeltal and Tzotzil, linguistic relatives of the Yucatec but inhabiting a quite different ecosystem.)
Worms are treated with epazote ( Chenopodium ambrosioides), which is highly effective. Canker sores ( fogajes) are effectively treated by a mash of the root of oon ak’ ( Gouanialupuloides); the root sap contains a soothing and drying chemical (apparently a saponin; personal observation). Kakaltun(wild basil, Ocimummicranthum) works well for stomach aches. Diabetes is effectively treated by tea of buds of Cecropia, by eating nopales ( Opuntiaspp.), by tea of certain grasses, and other local foods. The bark of chakah ( Bursera simaruba) makes a tea effective as a skin wash for rashes caused by contact with chechem ( Metopium brownei), a huge tree closely related to poison ivy and having the same irritant capacities. The abundant ha’abin ( Piscidia piscipula) has bark and roots with toxic compounds and also tannins, and the bark is rasped to make a
rash for skin infections, for which it is very effective, with strong antibiotic action (Ankli 2000).
Arnica (here Tithoniaspp.) is used, as elsewhere, in a tea or alcohol infusion for bruises, skin infections, arthritis, and other pains, as well as itching and mange.
Box elemuy ( Malmeadepressa), used so widely that it is smuggled up to Maya in Los Angeles, seems to be effective for kidney medicine (Salvador Flores Guido, personal communication), but confirmation is needed. Chaya ( Cnidoscoluschayamansa) is an effective diuretic. Of several apparently effective stomach-ache remedies, allspice ( Pimentadioica, a fairly common native tree) is known in biomedicine to be effective. The irritating, pungent, somewhat toxic sap of euphorbia (notably hobon k’ak’, E. heterophylla) is put on skin and eye infections and the like.
6
E.N. Anderson
A semi-medical use is the placement of the extremely sticky leaves of Martynia annua to catch fleas, hence its Maya name of chukch’ik, “catch-flea.”
Foods are not considered medicines per se, but are known to be nourishing and to prevent malnutrition states of various kinds. There is not, however, the clear recognition that certain foods cure certain states, as in Chinese medicine, in which green vegetables are known to cure scurvy, red meats treat anemia, and many other food cures are well known. The Maya treat anemia with herbal teas, some of which may be iron rich (no one really knows).
All these cures are verified by my experience and the Mayas’ and/or by biomedical science. They are widely used for the straightforward reason that they work, in some cases better than drug store remedies. In general, it is obvious that the Yucatec have an herbal
medicine that is outstandingly effective in biomedical terms, probably about comparable to the ancient Greek herbal lore of Dioscorides, and apparently more often effective biomedically than Chinese herbs are known to be. Yucatec remedies not known to be effective may actually be ineffective, or may simply not have been studied enough. For instance, wako ak’( Aristolochiamaxima), a medicine so popular it is even brought in some quantity to Los Angeles by migrant Yucatec, has not been studied, but is part of a genus widely known for medicinal but sometimes toxic effects. Like others of its genus, it contains aristolochic acid, which has uncertain effects and is under study. The other plant important enough to be massively shipped to Yucatec Maya in the United States is kambalhau (Dorstenia contrayerva), used for stomach troubles, and also for snakebite (hence the species name), but its value has not been assessed.
Some clearly ineffective remedies persist because they are easily confused visually or in taste with effective plants. Others may have apparently “worked” for someone and been adopted on the chance that they might work again. Testing is by individuals and the results are shared by word of mouth, so opportunities for error are high and opportunities for verifying are relatively low. Sometimes, dramatic
“medical” effects make a plant popular when it has little biomedical effect.
Tankasche’( Zanthoxylumcaribaeum) has a dramatic numbing effect on the tongue and mouth, similar to but stronger than that of its close relative Chinese brown pepper. This has given tankasche’ a reputation as a magically powerful plant, and it is used to deal with sorcery, witches, and evil winds. My experience and studies of the genus do not disclose much non-magical value.
It is astonishing how much biomedically accurate information is there, and how widespread it is. Roys and the Redfields, and even the early dictionaries, report knowledge that is, today, still widely shared all over the Yucatan Peninsula. Most Maya cures have not been tested in
biomedical laboratories, and no doubt many of them work well, but the problems of “biopiracy” (Shiva 1997) and loss of rights to their own plants by the Maya and by the Mexican nation have led to a shutdown of experimentation and testing, so we will never know. 1
1 See my posting “The Morality of Ethnobiology” on my web site www.krazykioti.com for the Maya case and its relationship to the general question.
Traditional and Nontraditional Medicine in a Yucatec Maya Community 7
Maya midwives also have, or had, a phenomenal amount of empirical knowl-
edge, including a number of strongly antiseptic plants for washing women and babies as well as techniques for delivery, including breech birth and other problematic cases (Anderson et al. 2004).
To these, after the Conquest, were added the most effective Spanish remedies, all of which go back to Greek, Roman, and Arabic medicine. These include mint ( Mentha spp.), anise ( Pimpinella anisum), citrus leaves ( Citrusspp., usually C. sinensis, orange), and rue ( Rutagraveolens,R.chalepensis), known to be effective in tea for stomach aches. Also used are wormwood ( Artemisia spp.) for worms, aloe vera ( Aloe spp.) for burns and wounds and open sores, old-world basil ( Ocimum basilicum) as a lesser substitute for kakaltun, and many similar remedies.
Garlic, known to be antiseptic and antifungal, is used for respiratory conditions.
Cinnamon is used as a digestive or carminative, as elsewhere in the world. Roses, also well known for their very effective antibiotic and antiseptic properties, are widely grown and universally used for teas
for sore throat and similar conditions (on the antiseptic and medicinal values of this and other spices and flavorings, see Billing and Sherman 1998).
These remedies were apparently adopted early, judging from Colonial-period dictionaries and herbals. They were probably propagated by Spanish missionaries (as they were elsewhere in Mexico). It should be noted that the Maya are inveterate borrowers and experimenters with plants. Some quite astonishing things turned up in and around Chunhuhub, including European grapevines and apples—hopelessly out of range and unable to fruit, but “interesting to try,” as their planters told me.
There are nineteenth-century French rose varieties, almost lost elsewhere in the world, probably cuttings of plants brought to Merida in its golden days (the Maya are very fond of propagation by cuttings).
Many tried the introduced Hawaiian fruit noni ( Morinda citrifolia); it was widely sold as a cure for diabetes and other conditions, but with imperfect and inconsistent results, according to my Maya friends. I watched over the years as this plant was enthusiastically adopted and propagated, integrated into the home and commercial orchards, and then somewhat neglected as it proved to be useful but no miracle cure.
Such experimentation is typical of Maya medicine and agriculture.
Ordinary illnesses are treated by herbal remedies known to alleviate the actual symptoms presenting. A very different kind of curing is necessary for witchcraft and evil winds. These respond to ceremonies and rituals involving religious chants and prayers and to various patent medicines and similar preparations.
Even here, though, pragmatism is important. The favorite indigenous plant for such rituals is siipche’, which, as noted, has a strong antibiotic in its leaves and twigs (Ankli 2000). It was probably first taken into sacred practice because of its obvious practical value. The introduced equivalent is rue, widely used in rituals (it can, among other things, substitute for siipche’ in Maya healing) and similarly effective medically as a wellknown stomach treatment. All the hmeen I know (the two noted above and several others) use herbal remedies as well as charms, prayers, rituals, candle-burning, and physical therapies. The herbal remedies always worked for me, and I gather for most customers.
8
E.N. Anderson
Possibly less empirical is the value of ya’axhalalche’, “green reed tree” ( Pedilanthus spp., pencil tree). This leafless tree, planted around a house, keeps away k’as ik’. Its strange, leafless, reedy appearance seems to make it a charm plant.
More ambiguous is chaya ( Cnidoscoluschayamansa;see Ross-Ibarra and Molina-Cruz 2002; Ross was my student and did some of this work under my direction).
Chaya is a known and potent diuretic, a highly nutritious green, and also a slightly uncanny plant, associated with witches. The reason for this association are unclear, but the link is well known, and has somewhat inhibited the efforts to spread the use of this plant for its nutritious values.
The ya’axche’ (“green tree,” Ceiba pentandra) is the sacred tree of the Maya and has been for thousands of years, as shown in Classic art, but it too has some association with witches, especially the Xtabai or witch-woman. It continues to be highly regarded but
Another random document with no related content on Scribd:
C E
¡Caed
y apartaos, oh lóbregos muros;
dejad que penetren el aire y la luz!
¡Rasgad, densas nubes, los velos oscuros!
¡Oh estrellas y soles, los rayos más puros verted en las olas del éter azul!
¡Imágenes bellas, que en grupos flotantes del cielo, do cuna tuvisteis, venís; con mantos etéreos, de gasas brillantes, la selva que nido les da a los amantes velando sus goces, piadosas cubrid!
Florecen los valles y el bosque frondoso. Ya el negro racimo cayó en el lagar, y en ondas purpúreas el jugo espumoso, corriendo entre flores sin paz ni reposo, ya es rápido río, ya es fúlgido mar
Las greyes aladas con plácido anhelo aspiran sedientas los rayos del sol, y a la isla encantada dirigen su vuelo, a la isla dichosa que encumbra hasta el cielo la frente ceñida de eterno verdor.
Osadas escalan la cumbre distante, intrépidas surcan las olas del mar, y audaces volando, con pecho anhelante, siguiendo van todas la luz fulgurante del astro de amores que brilla triunfal.
M
Ya duerme. Os doy gracias mil por tan magistral concierto. ¡Bien lo hechizasteis, por cierto, hijos del aire sutil!
Dadle, en falaz testimonio, visión que bella le asombre; duerma y delire: ¡aún no es hombre
para atreverse al Demonio!
Romperé de esta prisión el sortilegio inclemente.
¿Qué me falta? Solamente un colmillo de ratón.
¿Un ratón? Asoma ya el negro hocico. Al conjuro apelaré, y es seguro que al momento acudirá.
El gran Señor de ratas y ratones, de moscas, y mosquitos y moscones, te previene que vengas obediente, y en el umbral aquel hinques el diente.
Ya viene: ¡al trabajo! ¡Así! Del signo avasallador es el ángulo exterior el que me retiene aquí.
Muerde y roe a tu placer: poco falta; ya está hecho.
Duerme y sueña satisfecho
Fausto: adiós, ¡hasta más ver!
F , despertando
¡Todo fue mera ilusión!
¡Todo se ha desvanecido!
¿Qué te hiciste? ¿Dónde has ido, encantadora visión?
Pero, loco estoy: ¿qué hablo? Nada pasó en este encierro.
¡Nada! Se ha escapado el perro, y he visto en sueños al Diablo.
GABINETE DE ESTUDIO
FAUSTO Y MEFISTÓFELES
F
¿Llaman? Entrad. ¿Qué importuno me busca?
M
Yo soy quien llamo.
F
Entrad, pues.
M
Dilo tres veces.
F
¡Entrad al fin, voto al Diablo!
M
Así me gustas, y entiendo que ya entendiéndonos vamos. Por disipar tus quimeras, aquí estoy, hecho un hidalgo, con rico traje de grana, de oro fino recamado, la breve capa de seda, la suelta pluma de gallo, y el luengo, tajante acero pendiente al izquierdo flanco. Viste tú las mismas galas, sin detenerte a pensarlo, y ven a correr el mundo, libre, contento y ufano.
F
¿Qué importa cambiar las ropas, si están dentro los cuidados? Tan mozo no soy que pueda correr tras goces livianos, ni tan viejo todavía que mi pecho esté ya exhausto. ¿Qué puede darme la vida?
«Abstente, abstente; sé cauto,» es el odioso estribillo que eternamente escuchamos, y que cada hora repite con retintín más amargo. Rompe el día, y con el día viene a mis ojos el llanto, al ver que en sus largas horas ninguna ventura aguardo; al ver que el placer posible
lo destruyo analizándolo, y las hermosas imágenes que mis ansias engendraron, malas artes las convierten en solemnes mamarrachos. Viene la lúgubre noche; rendido en el lecho caigo, y al buscar paz y reposo, pesadillas no más hallo. El espíritu que enciende el volcán en que me abraso, en el corazón encierra sus tempestades y estragos. Dentro, fuego; fuera, nieve: di si en tan mísero estado odio con razón la vida y pronta muerte reclamo.
M
Huésped importuno, empero, es la muerte en todos casos.
F
¡Feliz aquel a quien ciñe la sien de sangrientos lauros! ¡Feliz aquel a quien hiere tras ardiente danza, cuando la hermosa de sus amores abriole los dulces brazos!
¡Feliz yo, si el alma mía, en sus celestiales raptos, al ver al sublime Espíritu, se hubiera en él abismado!
M
¿Y por qué, anoche, de cierto negro licor huyó el labio?
F
¿Vas al acecho?
M
No todo lo sé; pero siempre sé algo.
F
Pues bien: si mi horrible angustia son calmó tranquilo y grato, que de mi niñez gozosa los dulces recuerdos trajo, ¡mal hayan las ilusiones que el corazón trastornando, a engañadores abismos llevan así nuestros pasos!
¡Mal hayan las fantasías que a nuestros sueños dan pábulo!
¡Mal hayan las apariencias que al sentido tienden lazos!
¡Mal hayan gloria y renombre!
¡Mal hayan pompas y aplausos, y cuanto al mundo nos liga, hogar, familia o arado!
¡Mal hayan Mammón y el oro con que pretende pagarnos, y los cojines que brinda a nuestro muelle regalo, y la vid y sus racimos, y el amor y sus halagos!
¡Mal hayan fe y esperanza, y sobre todo ese engaño,
mal haya la pacientísima resignación de nuestro ánimo!
C E (invisible)
¿Qué has hecho del mundo, del mundo esplendente? Tu puño iracundo lo aplasta inclemente, triunfal semidiós. La hermosa y querida visión de la vida cayó destrozada, cayó ya en la nada; de aquella hermosura tan cándida y pura nuestra alma va en pos; y mísero llanto vertemos, al ver hoy roto el encanto tan plácido ayer.
¡Oh tú, soberano del género humano! ¡Soberbio titán! Engendra en el seno del alma profundo, más puro y sereno, más grande, otro mundo; da vida a tu afán: y en plectros sonoros espléndidos coros tus glorias dirán.
M
Ya vino en tu ayuda mi gente menuda, que en sabios consejos
te muestra a lo lejos placer y emoción. En pos de ellos vuela, huyendo estos muros, do en antros oscuros se extingue y se hiela tu audaz corazón.
No el propio dolor avives, negro buitre en ti cebado; ven, y en la pobre compaña de este miserable diablo, serás hombre, por lo menos, cual lo son tantos y tantos. Y no imagines, por ende, que te arrojo al vulgo sandio: nunca fui de los primeros; pero, si aceptas mi amparo, tuyo soy desde ese instante, y en mí encuentras en el acto compañero, y si más quieres, servidor, y hasta lacayo.
F
¿Y a qué me obliga ese obsequio?
M
¡Oh, calla! No apremia el pago.
F
Diz que el diablo es egoísta, y si nos ayuda en algo, no hace jamás por el mero amor de Dios el milagro. Temibles son tus ofertas:
di qué pides; habla claro. No es bueno tener en casa un servidor de tu rango.
M
Pues bien: aquí he de servirte sin pereza y sin descanso, y tú harás por mí lo mismo cuando estemos allá abajo.
F
Allá abajo, poco importa. Si este mundo haces pedazos, del mundo que después venga no he de hacer el menor caso. Del suelo que mis pies huellan todas mis dichas brotaron; el sol que mi frente baña correr vio todos mis llantos: si el sol cae y se hunde el suelo, ya por nada más me afano. Me es igual, si hay otra vida, que odio impere o amor santo, y que esa morada póstuma sea el Empíreo o el Tártaro.
M
Entonces, ¿en qué reparas?
Decídete: acepta el pacto, y verás, al punto mismo, adónde llego y alcanzo. Vas a gozar lo que nadie gozar pudo, ni aun soñándolo.
F
¿Qué podrás, qué podrás darme?
¿Qué entiendes tú, pobre diablo, qué entiendes de la insaciable sed del espíritu humano?
¿Qué podrás darme? Manjares, que pronto cansan al labio; oro, que cual vivo azogue escapa de nuestras manos; lucha en que jamás vencemos, juego en que nunca ganamos; hermosuras, que al vecino sonríen en nuestros brazos; gloria, placer de los dioses, que pasa como un relámpago. Muéstrame un árbol que vista cada día nuevos ramos, y un fruto que no se pudra en él antes de tocarlo.
M
Te daré cuanto apetezcas: el empeño no es tan arduo. Ya es hora; ven; el banquete está servido: ¡a saciarnos!
F
Si en el lecho deleitoso logro un punto de descanso, tuyo soy. Si satisfecho de mí mismo un día me hallo, y complacido me rindo a tus deleites y engaños, sea aquel mi último instante. Dime, ¿aceptas ese trato?
M
Aceptado: aprieta.
F Aprieta.
Si algún día, embelesado, al momento fugitivo digo: «Ten el vuelo raudo», échame al cuello la soga, abre el abismo a mi paso, doble a muerto la campana, párese el vital horario, todo para mí concluya, y comience tu reinado.
M
Piénsalo bien: algún día podré quizás recordártelo.
F
Recuérdalo cuando gustes: lo que prometo, lo pago. Ser esclavo tuyo, o de otro, ¿qué importa, si siempre esclavo he de ser?
M
Pues da comienzo el festín del Doctor Fausto, y el mismo Diablo en persona a servirle va los platos. Mas... por la vida o la muerte, no estorbarán tres o cuatro renglones.
F
¿Juzgas, pedante, firma y sello necesarios?
Ni de caballero entiendes, ni de palabras y tratos. Una dije, y para siempre quedé por ella obligado.
¿Piensas tú que cuando todo vuela a merced de los hados, sujetarán mi albedrío tus tres renglones o cuatro?
¡Pueril y vana quimera!
¿Por qué impresionas a tantos?
¡Feliz quien de su firmeza hace al alma tabernáculo!
Encontrará en su camino lo más escabroso llano.
Fantasma es que al mundo aterra un papel emborronado: apenas la pluma leve trazó los fatales rasgos, tienen ya el lacre y la tinta fuerza y poder soberano. Pide, Espíritu maligno, ¿quieres papel, bronce o mármol?
¿Tomo el buril o la pluma?
Escoge: eres dueño y árbitro.
M
¿Qué tienes? ¿Por qué te exaltas?
Cualquier papel, un retazo basta, y una sola gota de sangre para firmarlo.
F
Si quieres, sea.
M
Es la sangre jugo precioso y extraño.
F
No temas que el pacto rompa: todas las fuerzas del ánimo rindo, entrego y comprometo, al admitirlo y firmarlo. Tanto voló mi arrogancia, que ya entre los tuyos me hallo. Burlome el excelso Espíritu, e insensible a mis halagos, la esquiva Naturaleza arrebujose en su manto; la hebra del pensar se ha roto, y estoy del saber cansado.
Templen los dulces deleites las vivas llamas en que ardo, y envueltos en gasas de oro vengan, Magia, tus encantos. Al torrente de la vida lanzareme, y al acaso en su raudal de aventuras iré corriendo y rodando. Bienandanzas y desastres, pena y gozo, risa y llanto, encadenen de mis días los eslabones variados: son acción y movimiento ley del espíritu humano.
M
Meta no pongo ni valla: si, fugaz revoloteando, desflorarlo quieres todo, todo puedes desflorarlo. Conmigo ven, y no temas.
F
De felicidad no te hablo: lo que yo quiero es el vértigo, el goce inquieto y amargo, el avivador despecho, el amor que crece odiando. El alma, al saber cerrada, a otras emociones abro; cuanto el hombre goza y sufre quiero sufrirlo y gozarlo. Sentir quiero en mis entrañas todo lo bueno y lo malo, y en la esencia de mi vida convertirlo y apropiármelo.
¡Venturoso yo, si toda la Humanidad en mí abarco, y al fin y al postre, como ella, choco, reviento y estallo!
M
¡Ay, en verdad te lo digo, yo que centenares de años estoy royendo y royendo el fruto indigesto y áspero! ¡Ay, en verdad te lo digo! De la cuna al campo santo digerir no puede el hombre la levadura de antaño. Ese todo, que ambicionas, solo es a un Dios adecuado: para él, fulgores eternos; para mí, noche y espanto; para vosotros, tinieblas y luces, sombras y rayos.
F
Quiérolo todo.
M
Bien; sea. No más encuentro un obstáculo, uno solamente: es corto el tiempo y el arte es largo. Paréceme que debieras prepararte, aprender algo. Asóciate a un buen poeta: este, lleno de entusiasmo, con soñadas perfecciones coronará tu retrato;
del león con la arrogancia, con la agilidad del gamo, con la viveza italiana y con el tesón germánico. Unirá en tu noble pecho con maravilloso lazo magnanimidad y astucia, y con arte soberano te ha de hacer galán fogoso y gentil enamorado. Tal ejemplar y arquetipo voy hace tiempo buscando; si con él doy algún día, don Microcosmos le llamo.
F
¿Quién soy, pues, si esa corona de la Humanidad no alcanzo, esa perfección, que enciende mis ansias?
M
Al fin y al cabo, eres quien eres. Encúmbrate sobre coturnos o zancos, y con pelucón disforme ciñe y abulta los cascos, ¿quién serás? El mismo que eres, ni más gordo ni más flaco.
F
¡Ay!, acumulé el tesoro de la humana ciencia en vano: cuando en mi interior penetro, allí nuevas fuerzas no hallo;
ni me acerco al Infinito, ni una línea me levanto.
M
Miras las cosas de un modo vulgar; hay que ser más cauto, y antes que vuelen los goces, discretamente apurarlos. ¿Es tuya, di, tu cabeza? ¿Tuyos son tus pies y manos? Pues del mismo modo es tuyo lo que te sirve de algo. Si tienes seis buenos potros, y los unces a tu carro, en vez de tener dos piernas, ¿cuántas tienes? Veinticuatro. Basta de filosofías; lánzate conmigo al campo: quien se devana los sesos me parece el pobre jaco, que por negro maleficio está en un yermo trotando, sin ver que en torno se extienden frescos y sabrosos pastos.
F
¿Cuándo partimos?
M
Al punto. De este calabozo huyamos. ¿Qué haces en él? Aburrirte y aburrir a los muchachos. Deja ese oficio indigesto al vecino don Gaznápiro;
no te afanes en la trilla de paja en la que no hay grano. Lo poco bueno que aprendes no te atreves a enseñárselo a tus discípulos. Uno te espera. ¿No oyes sus pasos en el corredor?
F
No puedo recibirle.
M
Luengo rato aguarda: si no le admites, corre el pobre buen bromazo. Déjame el gorro y la bata;
(Se los pone.)
me sientan como pintados. En mi agudeza confía; quince minutos reclamo. Tú, para el famoso viaje, prepárate mientras tanto.
(Vase F .)
M , envuelto en la larga vestidura de F
Razón y saber desdeña, las dos alas que te han dado; deja que en sus obras vanas de ilusiones y de encantos te afirme y envuelva el suave Espíritu del engaño; y así, Doctor, serás mío, sin condiciones ni obstáculos.
