Review by Choice Review
This volume poses two questions: Is the hot-cold polarity in Native Latin American medical beliefs due to diffusion from the 16th-century humoral medicine of the Spanish conquerors? Or is it an integral part of the pre-Spanish cultural perspectives? In espousing the latter view, and contending that the two systems display only surface likenesses, the authors dispute the diffusionist theory of George M. Foster's influential book, Hippocrates' Latin American Legacy (1994). They provide detailed reviews of Hippocratic humoral doctrine and of the indigenous hot-cold syndrome, holding that elements fundamental to humoral theory--e.g., humors and the wet-dry dichotomy--are totally absent from Native perspectives. Additionally, while humoral doctrine deals only with presumed "natural" laws of nature and bodily states, Native hot-cold beliefs pervade not only how people think of health and illness issues, but also their relationships with the land, plants and crops, animals, and spirits. Although their data derive from a limited sample--Native groups in the highlands of southern Veracruz, Mexico--the authors believe that they hold for all of Native Latin America. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. E. Wellin emeritus, University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
