Imaginario social, significados y prácticas sobre rituales de limpieza de sanadoras en los mercados de Cuenca

Abstract

The increasing modernization and the technological advance have caused the degradation of these ancestral practices to simple charlatanism. The objective of the study was to understand the social imaginary about the cleaning rituals in Cuenca marketplace healers. The study group was six healers from the August 10, February 27, April 12, November 3 and October 9, with ages between 40-70 years old. The study was a qualitative non-experimental design of exploratory scope. The instruments for data collecting were the semi-structured interview and the non-participant observation.

The results indicated that the cleanliness rituals are the product of the cultural syncretism of the belief systems and ancestral traditions that are mixed in each society. As for the meaning, according to these healers, the results showed that they serve to restore of people´s health, heal diseases and evil, and transmit good energies. Furthermore, the practices of these rituals allow people to be protected against future diseases, have the abilities to perceive if a person is sick or health, balance and maintain a contact with the spiritual world and release the stress of the organism. The instruments that these healers used were medicinal plants (ruda, santamaria, rosemary, pennyroyal), as well as colognes, egss, chili pepper, alum stones and chonta wood. Conclusions: the IS of the healers was based on practice, acquired skills and vicarious learning. Cleaning rituals maintain a triangular notion between God, the healer and the plants.