THE LIMPIA IN THE MESOAMERICAN ETHNOMEDICINES

Download or read book THE LIMPIA IN THE MESOAMERICAN ETHNOMEDICINES written by Alfonso J. Aparicio Mena and published by Bubok. This book was released on 2013-03-18 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A limpia (?cleansing?, in the Spanish language) is a physical?symbolic method, used in the Mesoamerican traditional medical practices, to reach a new balance. The verb «to clean» means «make something or someone free of dirt, mess or defects». When what is removed is visible, the result of ?cleaning? is an objective fact; when, however, the alteration, the defect, the block inside the person is symbolic (?energetic?), the limpia becomes an act of faith, a physical ritual that is a step away from the sacred or the traditional. In fact, according to Mesoamerican natives, the human being is built up also by ?something more? than the body: this is a kind of vital energy that is an integral part of all creatures, and of course the human being. Not specific of Mesoamerican worldview, the ?spiritual vibration? is communicated, with other discursive images, by other ethnic groups coming from all around the world. Mesoamerican people, thus, think that health problems have not only corporal or psychological causes and relations but ?energetic? too. The limpia makes the person connected with itself and with its own environment (biological, community and of cultural beliefs); its purpose is to re?harmonize the person with that environment, removing and expelling from it the elements (physical, psychic, social and ?symbolic?) causing its sickness or influencing it.