Un succes bien relatif: La medecine occidentale chez les Indiens Guajiro

Abstract

After recalling the theoretical principles which underlie the traditional medical practices of the Guajiro Indians, the author gives a general picture of Western medicine as it is practised in the Guajiro environment, in Venezuela.

Having described the Indian approach, an inventory is drawn up and a brief analysis given of the factors which, according to the Indians' “state of acculturation”, draw them either towards or away from the hospitals, or else leave them with an ambivalent attitude.

At the end of this study it appears that the divergences and incompatibilities between Guajiro and Western medicine are not only formal and material, but also social and theoretical. The problem of the relationship between the two medicines does not, therefore, have a simple solution in the present Guajiro context, but nevertheless certain steps should be taken urgently. It is necessary, in particular, for the Western practitioner working among the Guajiro to acquire an “anthropological consciousness” and a thorough knowledge of the native medical theory, even if only to ensure that the treatment he prescribes is applied and continued …