Exploring the emergence of traditional healer organizations: the case of an ethno-medical association in Bolivia

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research was to explore the phenomenon of the emergence of ethno-medical organisations among traditional healers from the late twentieth century. A case study was carried out on the Bolivian organisation Kallawayas sin Fronteras (KASFRO). According to the findings, KASFRO has been founded to demand formal recognition and inclusion in the national health system. Following historical discrimination against traditional medical heritage and the supremacy of the allopathic medical system, new trends of worldwide legitimisation of indigenous people's rights, as well as the worldwide acceptance of non-Western medical systems, were identified as crucial factors in the emergence of KASFRO. As a civil society organisation, KASFRO has been found to be a platform of social capital development which enables both, bonding within the Kallawaya community as well as with other traditional healer organisations (THO's), and bridging with governmental entities, which eventually led to the recognition of traditional doctors as professionals in Bolivia. These findings corroborate the roles of nongovernmental and nonprofit organisations as agents of political and social change, serving the preservation of medical ancestral cultures.

KEYWORDS:

• Third sector organisations
• traditional healer organisations
• traditional medicine
• Bolivia
• Kallawayas
• civil society

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Kallawayan doctors who are members of KASFRO, especially to its president Jesus Gomez Paye; The Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem for its financial and academic support and Dr. Susan Schneider for her helpful comments. The author would also like to thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their highly constructive comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 In this article, the terms traditional medicine, folk medicine and indigenous medicine are used interchangeably. Similarly, the terms indigenous/traditional healers/doctors/practitioners are used interchangeably.

2 Unlike traditional medicine, complementary and alternative medicine refer to a broad set of methods, outside the biomedical system, which are not part of a country's own tradition (WHO, 2002).

3 Source: http://laescobaescultural.wordpress.com/2010/05/20/viajando/. Retrieved 1-12-13

4 http://www.redindigena.net/index1.html. Retrieved 10-12-13