Bridging the Gap between Western and Indigenous Medicine in Eastern Nicaragua

• Main Author: Wedel, Johan
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Slovene Anthropological Society / Društvo antropologov Slovenije 2009
• Subjects: Miskitu; medical pluralism; healing; grisi siknis; Nicaragua; medicinski pluralizem; zdravilstvo; Nikaragva; anthro-se; socio; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://notebooks.drustvo-antropologov.si/Notebooks/article/view/340

In Nicaragua there are attempts, at various levels, to bridge the gap between Western and indigenous medicine and to create more equal forms of therapeutic cooperation. This article, based on anthropological fieldwork, focuses on this process in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region, a province dominated by the Miskitu people. It examines illness beliefs among the Miskitu, and how therapeutic cooperation is understood and acted upon by medical personnel, health authorities and Miskitu healers. The study focuses on ailments locally considered to be caused by spirits and sorcery and problems that fall outside the scope of biomedical knowledge. Of special interest is the mass-possession phenomena grisi siknis where Miskitu healing methods have been the preferred alternative, even from the perspective of the biomedical health authorities. The paper shows that Miskitu healing knowledge is only used to compensate for biomedicine’s failure and not as a real alternative, despite the intentions in the new Nicaraguan National Health Plan. This article calls for more equal forms of therapeutic cooperation through ontological engagement by ongoing negotiation and mediation between local and biomedical ways of perceiving the world. V Nikaragvi na različnih nivojih poskušajo premostiti razkorak med zahodno in avtohtono medicino ter na ta način ustvariti bolj enakopravno obliko terapevtskega sodelovanja. Pričujoči prispevek temelji na antropološkem terenskem delu in proučuje ta proces v Severnoatlantski avtonomni regiji, v provinci, ki jo naseljujejo pretežno pripadniki ljudstva Miskitu. Članek opisuje verovanja glede bolezni med Miskituji in to, kako si terapevtsko sodelovanje predstavljajo in ga izvajajo z medicinsko osebje, zdravstveni organi in Miskitu zdravilci. [tudija se v prvi vrsti osredotoča na bolezni, za katere v lokalnem okolju verjamejo, da jih povzročajo duhovi in čarovnije ter na tiste težave, ki presegajo področje biomedicinskega znanja. Posebna pozornost je v tem pogledu posvečena množično-posesivnem pojavu ...