Health Interculturality In Honduras

Health Practices and “Interculturality” in Honduras: A Dialogue between National and Indigenous Therapeutics Silvia González Carías
Fulbright Visiting Scholar Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras

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Silvia González Carías Fulbright Visiting Scholar Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras Center for Latin American Studies University of Kansas Brown Bag April 28, 2011

HealthPractices and “Interculturality” in Honduras: A Dialogue between National and Indigenous Therapeutics
This talk presents a characterization of traditional therapeutic practices among Lenca and Ch’orti’ indigenous peoples in Honduras. It is based on the study ―Health Interculturality: the Lenca and Maya Ch’orti’ of Honduras, nutritional and therapeutic practices in women and children with less than fiveyears of age‖, completed for the Honduran Health Ministry. I participated as the main researcher in coordination with a colleague anthropologist (Carmen Julia Fajardo) and a pedagogue (Mario Mejía) who converted the research data into intercultural-health training material. The main objective of the research was to contribute to the elaboration of educational material directed to the healthpersonnel of the Honduran Health Ministry´s “National Program for the Ethnic Groups” and the ―Nutrition and Social Protection Project‖, two governmental programs that work with indigenous peoples in some of the most marginalized regions of the country. The educational material produced by this study was designed to train health personnel regarding: 1. Cultural differences in the perception of healthand illness in different societies 2. Information about indigenous health practices and the philosophy behind them.

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Conceptual bases of the Interculturality Interculturality is defined as the ―active dialogue in conditions of equality and permanent exchange between peoples having two or more different cultural backgrounds. In this dialogue there must exist a cultural exchange and encounter.People must be open to generate new practices and knowledge from a respectful attitude towards the differences”. Interculturality seeks to establish a negotiation between the different social, political and cultural actors, from which new strategies, expressions, practices and meanings should emerge, defying the prevalence of one culture over the other.1 To be able to create educational materialfor national health personnel (doctors, nurses, assistants, etc.), in health interculturality, it was first necessary to emphasize and make clear concepts such as ―culture‖ – (differentiating it from ―education‖); ―worldview‖; ―medicine‖; ―health and illness‖; and the concept of ―interculturality‖ itself.

Intercultural communication should be a space of continuous learning, establishingrelations and alliances with the multiple sectors of society, understanding diversity, interchange, communication, learning, transformation, and the need to lay bridges between different societies interacting. A major theme in the educational material is that health is related to political-economy, and that the concepts of health and illness are concepts pertaining to each culture. One of the ideas thatwas important to transmit in the educational material directed to health personnel was the definition of ―medicine‖ and that systems of health and healing

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Fuente: Iniciativa Salud de los Pueblos Indígenas. Lineamientos Estratégicos y Plan de Acción 2003 2007.Organización Panamericana de la Salud, Oficina Regional de la Organización Mundial de la Salud.

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differ between culturegroups. It was necessary to point out that within indigenous groups, specialized knowledge about healing are passed down from generation to generation—and that lineages of healing specialists have maintained and reproduced this kind of knowledge.

Methodology: This applied anthropology study used ethnographic methods, combining participant observation and interviews. We also used more collaborative...