Medicinal histories: the future of the past

Abstract

This article explores the work of feminist writer and historian Aurora Levins Morales, arguing that it extends some of the arguments made by Hayden White, Keith Jenkins, and Beverly Southgate.

Keywords:

• Aurora Levins Morales
• historiography
• Latino history
• postmodern history
• post-positivist realist theory
• Puerto Rican

Notes

1. For further discussion on postmodernist histories see History and Tropology: The Rise and Fall of Metaphor (Ankersmit 1994) and The Postmodern History Reader (Jenkins 1997).

2. Curanderas use a holistic form of healing that incorporates folk medicines and spirituality. It represents a non-western conception of healing. By evoking this tradition shared by various Latino cultures, Levins Morales makes clear that her methodology is one that is also holistic and challenges western conceptions of historical methodology. See Medicine Women, Curanderas, and Women Doctors (Perone, Stockel, and Kruger 1989).