Concepciones sobre interculturalidad en la medicina tradicional de Cuenca y Quingeo: una visión etnográfica

Abstract

Traditional medicine encompasses a whole set of past knowledge about forms and methods of healing, which have been transmitted from generation to generation to achieve its survival. This research work is based on an ethnographic approach and the application of social mapping in the rural area of Quingeo and in the city of Cuenca, with the objective of understanding traditional medicine in these territories, and the influence of state action, under the concept of interculturality applied in the 2008 Constitution. In addition, this research allows us to enter into the conceptions that healers, doctors and patients have about this practice, in order to understand how the relationship between Pachamama and the human being takes place, since the body becomes a living map, in which the three Andean worlds can be found. Thus, the body is conceived as a territory in which various activities take place, including those of healing, necessary to maintain a balance. Another feature that stands out in this work is the analysis of the incorporation of techniques, instruments and methods, which have given traditional medicine new characteristics.