PreColumbian Medicine

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PRE-COLUMBIAN MEDICINE:HISTORICAL

SOURCES

An exhibit at theNATIONAL LIBRARY of MEDICINE

8600 Rockville PikeBethesda, Maryland 20209

FEB. 2 - MAY 22,198l


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Ceramic sculpture of hunchbackCulture: Colima (Mexico)

B.C. 200 - 250 A.D.

PRE-COLUMBIAN MEDICINE:H STORICAL SOURCES

The conquest of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec empire (today the site ofMexico City), by Hernan Cortes in 1521 marked the beginning of a rapid decline forthe major centers of preCoiumbian civilization. These cultures were the last ofmany that had existed for centuries before Columbus arrived. Within a short perioda great deal of the historical record of the indigenous cultures was destroyed. Traitsand traditions that survived for a time were soon affected by acculturation withaspects of European society. Medicine as it was practiced in the pre-Columbianworld, for the most part, disappeared.

Our knowledge of preColumbian medicine is derived primarily from study infour areas: c eramics, codices (manuscripts), and the fields of paleopathology andcultural anthropology, including early accounts of medicine practiced by the in-digenous people. These source s have certain advanta ges and limitations for thestudy of ancient American medicine, but they are all we have to reconstruct themedicine practiced in a civilization that no longer exists.


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Ceramic sculpture of m other and infantCulture : Mochia (Peru)c. 800 A.D.

Med cal Sculpture

Ceramic sculpture of pregnant femaleCulture: Nayarit (Mexico)

B.( 3. 200 - 250 A.D.

A large number of pre-Columbian ar-tifacts of medical interest have beenpreserve d, many of them in the form ofceramic sculptures. As with other remainsof early cultures, we cannot always be cer-tain why they were created or, in the caseof funerary art, why they were buri ed.

While the physical deformities in theseearly sculptures can be recognized, thespecific causes cannot be identified. Manand disease are in a constant state ofchange within their environment. Symp-toms of disease can change and thevirulence of a disease can vary. Somediseases that are present today did-not ex-ist in the past and so me that exis ted in theancient world may have long since disap-peared. A complete and accuratediagnosis, therefore, cannot be made sole-ly by the interpretation of pathologic signsrecreated in clay more than 1000 yearsago.


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Codices

The destruction by the Spanish of an in-calculable number of native American codiceswas an immense historical loss. In an attemptto rectify the situation the Spanish had Indiansproduce new codices dealing with a wide selec-tion of historical and cultural subjects. Theycould not replace those that were destroyed,however, because the subjects were nowpresented from a new point of view: 16th cen-tury European, rather than native American.

Of approximately 500 codices relating toancient Mexico that are extant, only 16 wereproduced before the Conquest. The vast ma-

Medical astrology, in the Lord Kingsboro ugh Codex (1562-1563).Illustration from Los codices de Mexico

(Institute Nati onal de Antropologi a e Historia, Mexico, 1979.)

jority, therefore, cannot be considered authen-tically reflective of pre-Columbian culture.Nevertheless, they are rich sources of valid in-formation relating to a wide vari ety of pre-Columbian subjects.

The codex of greatest significance for thehistory of medicine is the Badianus manuscriptof 1552 -- the first herbal produced in America.The Florentine Codex, produced between 1578and 1580, includes some interesting medicaldata. Other manuscripts containing informationrelating to medicine are the codicesMagliabechiano (1566) and Mendoza (I 541-42).


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Badianus Codex

Medical plants described and illustrated in the Badianus Codex (1552),the first American herbal.

Illustration from Emily Walcott Emmart,The Badianus Manuscri pt (Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins Press, 1940).

The oldest source of information on the gardens. Cortes, in a letter to King Charlesmedical herbs of preColumbian America is the describing the market district of Tenochtitlan,work composed by Martin de la Cruz in 1552 in mentions a street of herb sellers where thereNahutal -- the language of the Aztecs -- and are all manner of roots and medicinal plantstranslated into Latin by Joannes Badianus. Both that are found in the land. There are houses asde la Cruz and Badianus were Indians who had it were of apothecaries where they sellbeen trained at the Colegio de Santa Cruz de medicines made from these herbs both forTlateloco (a district of Mexico City); the school drinking and for use as ointments and salves.was run by Franciscans to educate young The Badianus manuscript deals with theAztecs and teach them Christianity. plant materia medica of the Aztecs and gives

The use of plants for medical purposes was the treatment for various maladies. It illustrateshighly developed among the Aztecs and their and describes 204 medicinal herbs ranging frompredecessors. The Spanish were astonished at small rock plants to large trees, from aquatic tothe size and variety of the Mexican botanical desert and tropical to alpine forms.

I


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HumanPaleopathology

As long as there has been human life, there Of all the geo-cultural regions of pre-have been injury and disease. Paleopathology Columbian America, none surpasses ancientis the study of abnormalities in human tissues Peru as an area favorable for the study ofwhich have been preserved from ancient times. paleopathology. Not only did the inhabitantsWhile a knowledge of anatomy and pathology master the art of embalming, but the climateis fundamental to the efforts of the was conducive to the preservation of burial re-paleopathologist, an understanding of the ar- mains. From ancient Peru, as well as from partscheology of the society being studied is also of North America, there is considerableessential if his work is to have proper historical paleopathological evidence showing aspects ofperspective. pre-Columbian medicine, as well as the

presence of disease.

Three Peruvian skulls showing healed trephineopening s surrounded by areas of scarring.Illustration from T.D. Stewart,Significance of osteitis in ancient Peruvian trephining,Bulletin of the History of Medicine 30 (1956).


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Birth of a child,Huichol Indian art;copied with permission of the

Fine Prrts Museums of San Francisco.

Huichol Indian shaman praying (Mexico).Photo by Kal Muller, from Art oi the Huichol Indians,Catalog of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco(New York, Harry N. Abrams, 1978).

ShamanismThe practice of medicine cannot be

separated from the culture in which it exists.The study of cultural anthropology cantherefore at times provide an insight into themedicine of the past.

Shamanism is the art of the medicine man,or curer, and probably represents the earliestmethod of healing. The shaman s efficacyderives from his access to supernatural power,and his therapeutics is always in harmony withhis societys concepts of health and disease.Shamans are usually regarded as powerful in-dividuals who possess an understanding ofsupernatural, psychological, and physical pro-cesses.

Shamanism persists in numerous contem-porary American Indian cultures, as well as inother area s of the world. In what way s andhow precisely these practices reflect the actionsof former societies depends on a host ofhistorical and sociological factors, notably theextent of a particular community s isolationfrom external influences over a period of time.

Manfred WasermanHistory of Medicine Division


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Medical plants described and illustrated in the Badianus Co dex (1552),the first American herbal.

Illustration from Emily Walcott Emmart,The Badianus Manuscript (Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins Press, 1940).

l l.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Public Health Service National Institutes of Health

PreColumbian Medicine

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