La Envidia: An Illness Manifest at the Level of the Community Body
Anthropology of Consciousness September 1, 2020 DOI: 10.1111/anoc.12126 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 1 |
| Population | One migrant from an Afromestizo community of the Pacific Coast of Mexico living in Atlanta, Georgia |
| Key points | Argues that La Envidia, an envy-related illness in Curanderismo, has somatic and emotional components rooted in disrupted interpersonal relationships, and that healing involves ritual interventions that restore balance and harmonious interaction. The interpretation draws on Participation Mystique, blurred psychological boundaries, indigenous and Yoruba-informed African concepts of illness, shamanism, symbolization, shared meaning, and embodied ritual experience. |
Abstract
AbstractIn Curanderismo and other traditional medicine systems, illnesses are understood to have somatic and emotional components and symptoms may be elicited by disruptions in interpersonal relationships between community members. An aspect of ritual interventions involves returning interpersonal relationships to balance and restoring harmonious interactions between members of the community. Important are shared understandings of the meaning of the symptoms, the mode of transmission of the illness, and the resolution that occurs through the process of the healer’s ritual interventions. In this essay, I present a narrative description of the illness, La Envidia, which is associated with the expression of the emotion, envy. The narrative was shared with me by a person who is a migrant from an Afromestizo community of the Pacific Coast of Mexico to Atlanta, Georgia. The illness, La Envidia, is discussed and interpreted framed by perspectives including Participation Mystique and blurred psychological boundaries, traditional indigenous conceptualizations of illness, shamanism and symbolization processes, shared meaning, traditional Yoruba informed African conceptualizations of illness and healing practices, and somatic and embodied ritual experiences.