The Tale of Healer Miguel Perdomo Neira: Medicine, Ideologies, and Power in the Nineteenth-Century Andes / Edition 1

The Tale of Healer Miguel Perdomo Neira: Medicine, Ideologies, and Power in the Nineteenth-Century Andes / Edition 1

by David Sowell
ISBN-10:
0842028277
ISBN-13:
9780842028271
Pub. Date:
05/01/2001
Publisher:
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
ISBN-10:
0842028277
ISBN-13:
9780842028271
Pub. Date:
05/01/2001
Publisher:
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
The Tale of Healer Miguel Perdomo Neira: Medicine, Ideologies, and Power in the Nineteenth-Century Andes / Edition 1

The Tale of Healer Miguel Perdomo Neira: Medicine, Ideologies, and Power in the Nineteenth-Century Andes / Edition 1

by David Sowell
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Overview

This new book tells the story of Miguel Perdomo Niera, a healer whose amazing cures during his travels through the northern Andes in the 1860s and 1870s evoked both enormous hostility and widespread adulation.

A combination of narrative and analysis, the book documents Perdomo's experiences in Colombia and Ecuador and offers valuable insights into the social history of medicine during the Great Transformation in nineteenth-century Latin America. Reactions to Perdomo also illuminate the conflicts between colonial and modern and between religious and secular belief systems in Latin America during this time. This era pitted the norms of colonial Latin America against forces of change that shaped contemporary Latin America. Perdomo's practice of medicine demonstrated a strong religious influence that liberals thought were incompatible with a modern, secular society.

Seldom have the contentions surrounding competitive medical systems been so starkly illuminated as in the case of Perdomo. One of a group of empirics, also known as cranderos, bleeders or barbers, who offered health care to people in Latin America, Perdomo did not charge for his services. Many people were perplexed by his cures. The drugs that he used allegedly enabled him to perform minor surgery without pain, swelling, or excessive bleeding. Supporters wrote numerous testimonials expressing their gratitude for his ability to cure illnesses that had plagued them for years.

But Perdomo also had his detractors. Physicians, formally trained medicos, and those who supported scientific modernization were critical of Perdomo's practice of Hispanic medicine, even though it was part of the medical system of the day. Blending Catholic healing beliefs with indigenous and African medical ideologies, Hispanic medicine challenged the innovations occurring in the professional medical community.

This volume also makes a singular contribution to a scholarly understanding of the emergence of medical pluralism, tracking the submergence of traditional

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780842028271
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date: 05/01/2001
Series: Latin American Silhouettes
Edition description: New Edition
Pages: 171
Product dimensions: 6.14(w) x 8.94(h) x 0.52(d)

About the Author

David Sowell is associate professor of history at Juniata College, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Healers and Medical Systems in Andean America Chapter 3 "Science. .. Which Is the Truth" Chapter 4 The Life and Times of Miguel Perdomo Neira Chapter 5 The Emergence of Medical Pluralism Chapter 6 Appendix: Testimonials on the Healings of Miguel Perdomo Neira Chapter 7 Notes Chapter 8 Bibliography Chapter 9 Index

What People are Saying About This

Ann Zulawski

-Ann Zulawski, Smith College
This is essential reading not only for students of the history of medicine but also for anyone interested in the conflictual process of modernization in nineteenth-century Latin America.

Alexandra Minna Stern

Alexandra Minna Stern, University of California, Santa Cruz
This book significantly broadens our understanding of the contested meanings of science, religion, sickness, and disease in modern Latin America.

Frank Safford

Frank Safford, Northwestern University
The Tale of Healer Miguel Perdomo Neira sheds new light on a largely ignored aspect of Latin American society and culture in the nineteenth century.

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