Saberes andinos en respuesta a la pandemia COVID - 19 y sus secuelas en el cantón El Tambo, provincia de Cañar, 2023 - 2024

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic accentuated vulnerability in priority groups, and exacerbated it in peasant and indigenous communities. These populations faced this health challenge by resorting to ancestral knowledge, such as ancestral medicine, which uses medicinal plants and animal substances as treatment alternatives; common practices rooted in their cultural traditions. The objective of this research was: to describe Andean knowledge in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences in the El Tambo Canton, Cañar Province, it was developed as part of a research project with a qualitative interpretive approach and descriptive scope. ; whose data collection was carried out using semi-structured interviews, focused on three main categories: Perceptions, knowledge and practices; addressed to key members of the community: Yachak, water carrier, community member and leader. The results obtained describe the reality of the community, in addition to contrasting with realities in Latin America and nearby countries; visualize specific elements about the study population; examine the use of ancestral knowledge during the pandemic; their perceptions, knowledge and practices, used as treatment and preventive measures during this critical global stage. Among the techniques described are: temazcal, baths with plants, vaporization, steaming the house with cypress, verbena and eucalyptus, the use of plants: masterful and bitter, prepared in various ways and in combination with citrus fruits, alcoholic beverages, and others such as bee honey and donkey fat. All this accumulation of knowledge allowed us to improve health conditions and contributed to reaffirming the use of ancestral medicine.