Being close to Doña Gerbasia motivated me to generate a project that looks at contributing to the renaissance of traditional healing practices and the complexity of ethnobotanical interactions -according to the expression of Dr. Efraím Xolocotzi. Another objective is to analyze these phenomena with the tools offered by the phytotechnics, plant taxonomy, phytochemistry and the sociology of the body. However, in order to avoid falling into generalizations, typical of the complex universe of phenomena that entails ethnobotany, I decided to focus on three Culture-Bound Syndromes (CBS)* that Doña Gerbasia deals with her patients: sadness, anger and fright.
These three syndromes are considered in Doña Gerbasia's cosmovision as illnesses that must be treated with a plant-based therapy –tipical from the Chatina region, on the Pacific Coast of the State of Oaxaca, Mexico- and with rituals that mix prayers, poetry and worship to the Virgin of the Remedies.
The approach to this knowledge and, of course, the search for relevant dissemination, has motivated me to convene a multidisciplinary team of specialists who support the project academically:
M. Sc. Ernestina Cedillo Portugal
She is a specialist in the determination and identification of wild and cultivated plant species. She has done several ethnobotanical documentations with various indigenous groups in Mexico. She currently works as a professor at the Universidad Autónoma Chapingo.
She enjoys appreciating natural landscapes and music.
Dr. Marcos Soto Hernández
He is a specialist in the biological activity of plants’ natural products. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Wales, UK and at the University of Leiden, The Netherlands.
He is currently a professor at the College of Postgraduates, Mexico, and he is the head of the laboratory of phytochemistry at the said center.
Dr. Álvaro Reyes Toxqui
He is a specialist in studies of corporeity and power. He uses theoretical and methodological tools from sociology, anthropology and philosophy in his research. He is currently a professor at the Chapingo Autonomous University and at the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico. He collaborates as a researcher in the Center for Economic, Social and Technological Research of Agroindustry and Agriculture (CIESTAAM).
He is also a radio conductor and producer, his passions and practices include: poetry, music, theater, photography and horticulture.
Ing. Eduardo Loaeza Vásquez
He has a background in agronomy. He has been a visiting scholar at ISARA-Lyon, France, UMass, USA, and the CP, Mexico. He have worked as an intern and as a consultant at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
We deeply appreciate your interest in knowing about this project, please do not hesitate to contact us
*Cultural Bound Syndromes: "Term derived from the current of colonialist anthropology to refer to the illnesses that belong to medical systems from different parts of the world, different from the Western 'scientist' one. They can be seen as a backward conception of the illnesses by labeling them as “unreasonable”. They have a symbolic interpretation depending of the culture "(Almaguer, 2003).
A big thanks to:
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Beatriz Loaeza Vásquez for supporting us with a large number of photographs used on this website.
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Hilaria Cruz for helping us to transcribe the names of some medicinal resources into Chatino language.
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To Diego Laurenti Sellers for reviewing the English version.
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To Francisco A. Solís-Marín for having determined taxonomically the collected samples of sea urchin
To those who are supporting this work in different ways in order to make it possible.