Context-Specific Variation in Humoral Classification

Academic history, domains and distribution of the hot-cold system in Mexico

BACKGROUND

The hot-cold classification system for things and concepts is widely used by many human groups in Mexico. We conducted a comprehensive review to understand the history, themes, and distribution of this system.

METHODS

We analyzed publications based on field work in Mexico, considering publication date, research approach, study depth, and conceptual domains. We identified the ethnic groups that use the system and the places where they live. A map illustrates the geographic and cultural distribution of the system.

RESULTS

The hot-cold system has been documented in 101 academic publications spanning almost a century, particularly for traditional medicine and food. Initially dominated by anthropological studies, ethnobotanists have increasingly contributed to the research. The hot-cold system is utilized by at least 56 indigenous ethnic groups (81% of the total) and mestizos (whose primary or sole language is Spanish) across most of Mexico.

DISCUSSION

Anthropologists laid the foundation for understanding the hot-cold system, on which current ethnobotany builds. However, there are still knowledge gaps, for example on some domains (human beings, landscape) and on patterns by regions or linguistic families. The geographic and cultural distribution presented here is approximate, as group ethnicity is imprecise.

CONCLUSIONS

The hot-cold system is widely applied in Mexico, although some variations exist. Further exploration of understudied domains, and variations between ethnic groups and regions, would contribute to a comprehensive explanation of this interconnected worldview.

An ethnographic study of salt use and humoral concepts in a Latino farm worker community in California's Central Valley

BACKGROUND

This article reports on the use of domestic or table salt for its perceived health effects and healing properties in a Latino farmworker community. It explores how contemporary salt usage beliefs can be seen to have roots in long-standing humoral theories of medicine and health.

METHODS

This qualitative investigation comprised 30 in-depth individual interviews and five focus groups conducted in Spanish with Mexican and Central American immigrants in one small city in California's Central Valley (N = 61 total participants). Interviews and focus groups were audiotaped, translated into English and transcribed. Several researchers independently and iteratively read transcripts, developed and applied codes, and engaged in thematic analysis.

RESULTS

Strongly emergent themes identified the importance of balance in health, and beliefs about the effects on salt on health. Valued for its culinary role, for bringing out the flavors in food, and used by people of all ages, salt use is part of a robust set of cultural practices. Salt was regularly mixed with foods in different combinations and ingested to restore balance, prevent disequilibrium or reduce vulnerability to diverse illnesses, promote rehydration, and address symptoms of exposure to extremes of temperature or physical or emotional stress. Statements made and practices engaged in by participants were highly suggestive of health and healing beliefs common to humoral belief systems based primarily on a hot-cold dichotomy in classifications of foods and healing behaviors. We evaluate these statements and practices in the context of the existing literature on historical and contemporary humoral beliefs in Latin American communities, in Mexico and Central America, and in the United States.

CONCLUSION

Humoral theory is a useful framework for understanding contemporary rural Latino migrant farmworkers' perceptions of the importance of salt for their health.

Hot and cold: medicinal plant uses in Quechua speaking communities in the high Andes (Callejón de Huaylas, Ancash, Perú)

ETHNO-PHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE

An ethnopharmacological survey has been set up in high altitude Quechua speaking communities dwelling in Callejón de Huaylas (Ancash department, Peru) and in medicinal plant markets in order to document the medicinal plants use of 178 species within the frame of a traditional Andean medicinal system.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A sound ethnopharmacological survey was performed during the years 2011, 2012 and 2013 in different places along Callejón de Huaylas valley in the peruvian Andes, were Quechua speaking communities dwell. Two different methodologies were used: first, plant uses were recorded during walks with informants and in medicinal plant markets held on a regular bases in the area (Huaraz, Carhuaz, Yungay). Secondly, traditional healers (curanderas, curanderos) were interviewed about their practices and healing sessions were observed, in order to understand better the traditional medicinal system as a whole (disease aetiology, diagnosis, treatments, healers).

RESULTS

Altogether, 178 medicinal species were collected. Most of the plants found on the market were also found in the wild and vice-versa. Medicinal plant trade is exclusively held by women, selling their merchandise to local people or to big retailer. Plants are classified according their hot or cold virtues, this in accordance with the local conception of the body physiology and disease aetiology, based on a hot-cold polarity. Main use notified for medicinal plants is "(bath) against cold", a prophylactic measure against diseases of cold nature. Other uses include culture bound illnesses i.e. susto, aire, nervios, or heart pain, commonly cited in South America. Regarding symptoms, rheumatic/arthritic pain, musculoskeletal traumas, cough, pulmonary and respiratory problems, gastritis and stomach ache, were the most frequently cited. Diagnosis and treatment are intrinsically linked together and mainly based upon divination techniques using egg and cuy (Cavia porcellus L., Caviidae).

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Medicinal plants use and traditional medicinal practices are still very vivid in Callejón de Huaylas as highlighted by the abundance of medicinal plants traded in the markets. In this business, women have a key position as healers at the family and community level. Medicinal uses of the majority of the species presented here are reported for the first time. Because medicinal plants sold on the market are collected from the wild and also because high altitude medicinal plants are generally small herbaceous species pulled out with their roots, there is a serious risk of over exploitation and extinction of endemic species.

The relevance of traditional knowledge systems for ethnopharmacological research: theoretical and methodological contributions

BACKGROUND

Ethnopharmacology is at the intersection of the medical, natural, and social sciences. Despite its interdisciplinary nature, most ethnopharmacological research has been based on the combination of the chemical, biological, and pharmacological sciences. Far less attention has been given to the social sciences, including anthropology and the study of traditional knowledge systems.

METHODS

I reviewed the literature on traditional knowledge systems highlighting its potential theoretical and methodological contributions to ethnopharmacology.

RESULTS

I discuss three potential theoretical contributions of traditional knowledge systems to ethnopharmacological research. First, while many plants used in indigenous pharmacopoeias have active compounds, those compounds do not always act alone in indigenous healing systems. Research highlights the holistic nature of traditional knowledge systems and helps understand plant's efficacy in its cultural context. Second, research on traditional knowledge systems can improve our understanding of how ethnopharmacological knowledge is distributed in a society, and who benefits from it. Third, research on traditional knowledge systems can enhance the study of the social relations that enable the generation, maintenance, spread, and devolution of cultural traits and innovations, including ethnopharmacological knowledge. At a methodological level, some ethnopharmacologists have used anthropological tools to understand the context of plant use and local meanings of health and disease. I discuss two more potential methodological contributions of research on traditional knowledge systems to ethnopharmacological research. First, traditional knowledge systems research has developed methods that would help ethnopharmacologists understand how people classify illnesses and remedies, a fundamental aspect of folk medicinal plant selection criteria. Second, ethnopharmacologists could also borrow methods derived from cultural consensus theory to have a broader look at intracultural variation and at the analysis of transmission and loss of traditional ethnopharmacological knowledge.

CONCLUSIONS

Ethical considerations in the ethnopharmacology of the 21st century should go beyond the recognition of the Intellectual Property Rights or the acquisition of research permits, to include considerations on the healthcare of the original holders of ethnopharmacological knowledge. Ethnopharmacology can do more than speed up to recover the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples to make it available for the development of new drugs. Ethnopharmacologists can work with health care providers in the developing world for the local implementation of ethnopharmacological research results.

Mexican migrant ethnopharmacology: pharmacopoeia, classification of medicines and explanations of efficacy

This paper describes the ethnopharmacological knowledge of women in an urban Mexican migrant community in Athens, GA, USA. Data were collected using free-list, pile-sort and semi-structured interviews. The pharmacopoeia of this community includes herbal remedies, over-the-counter medications such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and prescription medicines. Multi-dimensional scaling analysis of pile-sort data revealed that Mexican women living in Athens classify medicines into four categories: herbal remedies, salves, pastillas (pills-both prescription and non-prescription) and other commercial preparations. Herbal remedies are viewed as natural and safe while pastillas are thought to be dangerous and potentially addictive. Comparisons of Mexican explanations for the actions of five medicines (Matricaria recutita L. [Asteraceae], Mentha spp. L. [Lamiaceae], Ruta spp. L. [Rutaceae], Ocimum basilicum L. [Lamiaceae] and paracetemol) with the pharmacological literature show several similarities and confirm that migrant women use these medicines effectively. Mexican migrant women use medicinal plants in combination with commercially produced medicines, but most have a strong preference for the herbal remedies that they make themselves, over drugs prescribed by physicians. Some of their descriptions of the actions of medicines are supported by the pharmacological literature, but ethnopharmacologists have not fully investigated all of the attributes that migrant women ascribe to them.

Hot and cold in transformation: is Iban medicine humoral?

Iban categories of hot and cold are examined in the context of humoral medical systems in southeast Asia. These categories are more than binary and oppositional: they are also contradictory and can only be understood in terms of their capacity for transformation in 'depth'. Analysis of the Iban epistemology of temperature sensation reveals the limitations of reductionist empirical approaches to hot and cold. Illness is apprehended, at one level, in terms of unusual conjunctions of opposite temperatures which signify a deeper disturbance in the relationship between body and soul, humans and spirits. Iban therapy redefines and relocates these categories in their proper place and at their appropriate level. It progresses from hot lay treatments to cool ritual treatments, yet cannot be accounted for within a limited framework of homeostatic balance. This paper develops an ethnographically grounded definition of humoralism which emphasizes non-reductive logic, cultural practice and transformation. The key element, transformation, is defined as a transition between categories and a shift in the level of interpretation which fundamentally alter the Iban experience of body and illness.

Empacho in four Latino groups: a study of intra- and inter-cultural variation in beliefs

It is usually impossible to know if reported differences between cultures are due to cultural differences or due to a difference in the methods used to study the cultures. This paper describes a collaborative, multisite study using a shared methodology to study intra- and inter-cultural variation in beliefs. A series of standard interview schedules were used to study Latin American beliefs about empacho in Guatemala, Mexico, and in the United States (Mexican-Americans and Puerto Ricans). Results showed consistency in beliefs about empacho both within and between the four samples.

Food classifications and the diets of young children in rural Egypt

This paper examines the underlying principles of the traditional food classification system as they influence toddlers' diets. Anthropological research in three Egyptian villages indicates that 'light' foods are given to rural toddlers and 'heavy' foods are withheld by mothers for fear of their negative impact on the digestive system. Here it is argued that understanding the culturally perceived values of food provides us with an insight into the overall context of the problem of toddlers' malnutrition in rural Egypt.

Why is humoral medicine so popular?

The hot/cold system is perhaps the most widely known medical belief system in the world. I propose that the wide acceptance of hot/cold ideas is due to the fact that they provide a particularly simple, economic coding for common human experience, such as hypothermia, heatstroke, and fevers. Coding of foods as heating or cooling can be understood in terms of a system of sensory cues that make the foods appear hot or cold. This paper deals primarily with data from Chinese culture.

Hot and cold as an explanatory model: the example of Bharuch district in Gujarat, India

The concepts of hot and cold are important in disease etiologies and systems of food classification in many parts of the world. A number of writers on hot-cold beliefs have assumed that the classification of foods is the central element in this system of beliefs, and that it is consistent. They have then proceeded to explain these beliefs in symbolic or adaptive terms, generalizing from systems of classification which have only local applicability. More recently a number of writers have recognized the importance of intracultural variation in the hot-cold classification of foods, and have turned their attention to revealing the underlying principles of classification. But because food classifications are only consistent within a limited geographical area, if they are consistent at all, these 'general principles' are only applicable to a single area or limited cultural context. In this article I describe the hot-cold system in a rural area of the Indian state of Gujarat. I show that by proceeding from the classification of diseases, and not from the classification of foods, it becomes possible to reveal certain underlying classificatory principles which also appear to be applicable to other manifestations of the hot-cold system. These principles seem to be based on the phenomena which accompany temperature changes in nature. Finally I suggest that hot-cold beliefs should be seen as an explanatory model which seeks to make the puzzling and threatening phenomena of disease and death more acceptable and predictable.