Bonesetters and curers in a Mexican community: Conceptual models, status, and gender

Abstract

In the indigenous Mexican village of Hueyapan, there is a dear contrast between the supernatural beliefs curers use to explain illness and the naturalistic assumptions made by this community's bonesetters. In addition to employing different conceptual models, the two types of healers differ with respect to their manner of recruitment, training, types of illnesses treated, social status, and gender. These differences add up to a seeming enigma: in a community where men largely control political, economic, and religious affairs, the higher status role of curer is undertaken most frequently by women and the lower status specialty of bonesetter by men. Hueyapan's health care system becomes less problematical, however, when it is recognized that recruitment to the bonesetter and curer roles is shaped by pragmatic considerations of role continuity and compatibility independent of the social status of these two occupations.

Key words:

• bonesetters
• curers
• ethnomedicine
• gender
• Nahua
• Mexico