Object structure
Title:

Different Systems of Knowledge Found in the Reproductive Health of Ashaninka Women from the Peruvian Amazon

Subtitle:

Ethnologia Polona 40 (2019)

Creator:

Kujawska, Monika

Publisher:

Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology Polish Academy of Sciences

Place of publishing:

Warsaw

Date issued/created:

2019

Description:

il. ; 24 cm

Type of object:

Journal/Article

Subject and Keywords:

medical pluralism ; resilience ; medicinal plants ; midwifery ; indigenous Amazon

Abstract:

Indigenous Ashaninka people from the Peruvian Amazon operate within their communal reserve and autonomous native communities, where biomedical health posts and biomedical practitioners are present. This article analyses how the two systems of knowledge and practice i.e., indigenous medicine and biomedicine, coexist in the Ashaninka territory and how they are articulated in childbirth, birth control and other aspects of reproductive health. Their medicinal cosmology privileges the medicinal plant use and midwifery. At the same time, these practices are compatible with biomedical thinking. The childbirth techniques widely shared by the Ashaninka women and midwifes do not change substantially after biomedical training. Instead, Ashaninka women complementarily add new practices to their own pre-existing array of contraceptive and labour techniques, without shifting their ontological basis. The Ashaninka seem a resilient society, one which is capable of “absorbing” novel biomedical knowledge, practices and technology into their medical landscape, while remaining within their cultural boundaries and thus preserving their specific features.

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Relation:

Ethnologia Polona

Volume:

40

Start page:

213

End page:

246

Resource type:

Text

Detailed Resource Type:

Article

Format:

application/octet-stream

Resource Identifier:

0137-4079 ; doi:10.23858/EthP40.2019.012

Source:

IAiE PAN, call no. P 366 ; IAiE PAN, call no. P 367 ; IAiE PAN, call no. P 368 ; click here to follow the link

Language:

eng

Rights:

Creative Commons Attribution BY-SA 3.0 PL license

Terms of use:

Copyright-protected material. [CC BY-SA 3.0 PL] May be used within the scope specified in Creative Commons Attribution BY-SA 3.0 PL license, full text available at: ; -

Digitizing institution:

Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Original in:

Library of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Projects co-financed by:

Operational Program Digital Poland, 2014-2020, Measure 2.3: Digital accessibility and usefulness of public sector information; funds from the European Regional Development Fund and national co-financing from the state budget. ; European Union. European Regional Development Fund

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