Mesoamerica
Mesoamerican Traditions
curandero · nahual · sabia/sabio · chjota chjine (Mazatec)
Mazatec, Nahua, Maya, Zapotec, Huichol (Wixárika) and others
EthnographyHistory
Mesoamerican healing traditions combine Catholic and pre-Columbian elements, calendar knowledge, cleansing rites, and in some communities the ritual use of specific plants and mushrooms under strict conditions.
Ritual specialists
- Healers working within Catholic devotional frameworks
- Calendar specialists among Maya communities
Cosmology
- Co-essences linking a person and an animal
- Illness from fright, envy and rule violation
Ritual practice
- Limpia cleansing
- Velada night vigil among Mazatec practitioners
- Pilgrimage to desert and mountain sites
History and pressure
- Colonial suppression and syncretism
- 1950s outside publicity around Mazatec mushroom practice and its damaging local consequences
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