Abstract

CARDONA ARIAS, Jaiberth Antonio. Linking of miscegenation and health in the medical system of a Colombian native population community. Rev Cubana Salud Pública [online]. 2013, vol.39, n.4, pp. 651-664. ISSN 0864-3466.

Introduction: in Colombian native populations are presents factors such as miscegenation that affects their medical system. For the rescue of traditional indigenous medicine and the effective integration with Western medicine, it is important to know the unique realities of the community which you wish to work with, their cosmology, cosmovision and cosmogony to direct health actions. Objective: to understand the relationship between miscegenation and health in a traditional indigenous medical system Zenú in Colombia. Methods: ethnographic study of 25 people, who were selected by theoretical sampling. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, daily field surveys and participant observation. Criteria of credibility, auditability, applicability and saturation categories were followed. Results: the conceptions and the actors of traditional native medicine, and intercultural aspects in health of Zenú populations were presented. There were described the main factors that led to loss the use of traditional medicine practice in the native populations, as well as the impact of miscegenation in fading away of cultural identity and of ways of approaching to health and disease. All this is attributed to Catholic evangelization, and to the influence of Western-style education and health systems. Conclusions: miscegenation has a great impact in this community on many systems, specially the health system, thereby favoring the loss of traditional medicine through acculturation processes adopted by the new native generations.

Keywords : health; medical system; natives; Colombia.

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