Tarahumara medicine : ethnobotany and healing among the Rarámuri of Mexico / Fructuoso Irigoyen-Rascón with Alfonso Paredes.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Irigoyen Rascón, Fructuoso, author.

Paredes, Alfonso, author.

Series:

Recovering languages and literacies of the Americas

Recovering Languages & Literacies of the Americas

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Tarahumara Indians--Medicine.

Tarahumara Indians.

Tarahumara Indians--Ethnobotany.

Tarahumara Indians--Rites and ceremonies.

Traditional medicine--Mexico--Tarahumara Mountains.

Traditional medicine.

Ethnobotany.

Mexico--Tarahumara Mountains.

Physical Description:

xv, 400 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

Other Title:

Ethnobotany and healing among the Rarámuri of Mexico

Place of Publication:

Norman, OK : University of Oklahoma Press, [2015]

Summary:

The Tarahumara, one of North America's oldest surviving aboriginal groups, call themselves Rarámuri, meaning "nimble feet"-and though they live in relative isolation in Chihuahua, Mexico, their agility in long-distance running is famous worldwide. Tarahumara Medicine is the first in-depth look into the culture that sustains the "great runners,1 Having spent a decade in Tarahumara communities, initially as a medical student and eventually as a physician and cultural observer, author Fructuoso Ifigoyen-Rascón is uniquely qualified as a guide to the Rarámuri's approach to medicine and healing. In developing their healing practices, the Tarahumaras interlaced religious lore, magic, and careful observations of nature. Irigoyen-Rascón thoroughly situates readers in the Raramuri's environment, describing not only their health and nutrition but also the mountains and rivers surrounding them and key aspects of their culture, from longdistance kick-ball races to corn beer celebrations and religious dances. He describes the Tarahumaras' curing ceremonies, including their ritual use of peyote, and provides a comprehensive description of Tarahumara traditional herbal remedies, including their botanical characteristics, attributed effects, and uses. As the most complete account of Tarahumara culture ever written, Tarahumara Medicine grants readers access to a world rarely seen-at once richly different from and inextricably connected with the ideas and practices of Western medicine. Book jacket.

Contents:

The Tarahumara ecological habitat

A historical review of the Tarahumara people

Rarámuri, the people and their culture

Affiliative social activities of the Tarahumara people

Great life occasions and ceremonies : birth and death among the Tarahumara

Major festivities of the Tarahumaras

Loss-of-health conceptual schemes of the Tarahumaras

Rarámuri healers

The Jíkuri ceremonial complex

Compendium of Tarahumara herbal remedies and healing practices

The Tarahumaras : a conventional medical perspective.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 285-382) and index.

ISBN:

9780806148281

0806148284

9780806143620

0806143622

OCLC:

907948423