The aim of this article is to advance our knowledge of past shamanic practices in northwestern South America through an analysis of colonial-era criminal cases of people accused of using “superstitious” healing practices. A reading of three cases from late eighteenth-century Ecuador (the colonial Audiencia of Quito) reveals details of the techniques that these healers were using. Shamans...
EthnohistoryJuly 1, 2018Edward Anthony Polanco9 citations
Abstract Since the sixteenth century, Central Mexican tiçiyotl (Nahua healing knowledge) has been portrayed as a male-dominated system akin to Western medicine. This has made Nahua women invisible in broader discussions of tiçiyotl. Though the historiography acknowledges that women were titiçih (healing ritual specialists), the scholarship has primarily focused on their role in midwifery. This...