2. Indigenous concepts of health and healing in Andean populations
Indigenous concepts of health and healing in Andean populations. How to model health beliefs and practices for the development of equitable health policies relevant to refugee, migrant and First Nations peoples.
Elizabeth Currie, University of York, UK;
John Schofield University of York, UK;
Diego Quiroga, Un. San Francisco de Quito;
Fernando Ortega, Un. San Francisco de Quito

3. ?

4. Ecuador: participant communities
. Zuleta/Ugsha
●Quito
.Salasaka
● Guayaquil
.Cuenca

7. MODELLING HEALTH BELIEFS: CORE CONCEPTS EXPLORED
Positive/
Negative
State (of being)
Manifested as
Ritual
Outcome
Positive
Identity (being born)
Birth
Naming
Identity/
legitimacy
Dead
Death: social breach/disconnection
Funerary/ancestry
Ancestral identity/
Wholeness/Integrity
Individual within family, community
Community performance & ritual participation: feasts, sacrifice etc
Order/Health
Incompleteness
Sin
Ritual cleansing, sacrifice, correction/confession
Lineage/ethnicity
Origin/ancestor
Mythic/remembrance
Alien
Displaced/rootless/social disconnection
Adoption by or reconnection to community, lineage, customs, traditions,
Restoration of Identity/
Balance/equilibrium
Health
Community rituals, feasts, sacrifice
Imbalance/
incompleteness
Illness
‘Completion’ therapy; divination, ritual cleansing, sacrifice

8. Participant Personal Information
Name:
Gender:
Age:
Kichwa speaker (yes/no. If yes, first or second):
Education (level of schooling ie > what year?):
Mobile phone:
TV:
Computer/internet (access to):
Other relevant information (occupation etc)

9. Beliefs about the World and Nature
What religion do you follow?
How do you see the physical landscape and nature, ie the earth, the sun, moon, stars, the sea, the landscape, plants, animals etc? Do you see them as all being part of a ‘whole’ or do you see them as being separate things?
Does any element, such as the wind, the water, the sun, have the power to harm / to heal?
Do you believe in earth spirits, spirits of the mountains, good/evil spirits, etc.?
Do you believe in ‘sacred locations’ in the landscape, and the importance of venerating them with offerings?
Do you believe that a supernatural being is in charge of the health of their community and able to cure people of any illness (as the wak’as had once been believed to)?
Do you see life and life experiences as being good or bad, positive and negative? (duality)

10. Life and the Human Body Do you believe that people have a:
Is the human body seen to mirror the wider cosmos, or any particular feature (e.g. a mountain)?
What do you believe about the ‘life force’ or ‘vital energy’? Does it animate only living creatures, or is it seen to be in all things, animate and inanimate?
Are any bodily substances (e.g. fat, blood, sweat etc) understood as having special properties, or to be symbols of life?
Are the mind and body separate, or are they part of a larger ‘whole’?
What are the functions of the body (e.g. breathing, eating, circulation, mind and feelings).
Do you believe that people have a:
mind,
body,
soul,
spirit,
shadow
other (describe)
Please give a brief description of how you think they interrelate.

11. Health and Illness Concepts
Do you believe in:
Malaire/malviento (‘bad airs’; negative environmental forces);
Susto/espanto (fright/shock);
mal de ojo (ojeado) (evil eye);
agarrado del cerro, (caught by the mountains);
la luna (affected by the moon);
Cuichig (affected by the rainbow);
Hualambario (affected by whirlwinds);
Brujería (witchcraft);
San Gonzalo, o otro Santo malo (como San Martín) (Catholic saints with the power to inflict harm);
castigo divino (divine punishment);
mala suerte (bad luck);
Envidia (envy).
Is there a word that means health?
How do you explain that a person is healthy?
What is health (the concept)?
When do you lose your health?
What are the origin / the causes of illness, sickness, disease?
What are the most common illness/diseases in your family, community?
How do you know somebody is sick?
How is a sick person viewed, i.e. is sickness related to identity?
Is sickness a condition that can be changed?

12. Modern versus Traditional Therapies
When do you go to a traditional healer/yachak?
When do you go to a modern doctor or clinic?
Does the cost of treatment affect whether you decide to go to a ‘modern’ doctor/clinic or a traditional healer?
Which do you think is more reliable at treating illness?
Are modern doctors/clinics effective for some illnesses and traditional healers for others?
Please describe.

13. THANK YOU

14. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This project ‘MEDICINE. Indigenous concepts of health and healing in Andean populations. The relevance of traditional MEDICINE in a changing world’ is funded through the European Commission Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme.
Grateful thanks are expressed to the Communities of the township of Salasaka, Ecuador and Hacienda Zuleta, Imbabura for their hospitality and help during recent fieldwork visits.