Humoral Medicine in Guatemala and Peasant Acceptance of Modern Medicine

Abstract

Peasants of highland Guatemala and elsewhere in Latin America classify foods, medicinal plants, illnesses and modern medicines according to a conceptual scheme of opposition between the qualities of hot and cold. Although anthropologists have presented descriptions of humoral medicine as a folk-belief, rarely have they examined the direct implications of this concept for improving the medical treatment of patients who subscribe to it. Native adoption of the Hippocratic theory of disease originally introduced by the Spaniards has created a situation whereby peasants frequently reject prescribed treatment because of contradictions arising between modern and humoral philosophies of health. When physicians prescribe medicines or dietary regimens that conflict with a patient's belief in the humoral concept, the successful treatment of that patient can be adversely affected. From the patient's point of view, treatment can only be effective if the prescribed medicines or foods are of an opposite temperature qual...