Maya healing knowledge

The Maya have lived for thousands of years in southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and parts of Honduras and El Salvador. In the Classic period, roughly from 250 to 900, they built cities such as Tikal, Palenque and Copán, and developed a script, a calendar and a rich knowledge of plants and the human body.

What we know about their medicine in that time is mostly indirect: from images, from residues in pottery and from what was written down later. After the Spanish conquest in the sixteenth century most Maya books were burned. What remained mixed with Spanish and Catholic influences.

Yet the traditions live on. There are now more than six million Maya, speaking some thirty different Mayan languages. Their medicine differs by region, language and village.

In Maya thought, people, nature and cosmos are connected. Health is balance, with the environment, the community and the spiritual world.

An important idea is the distinction between hot and cold. Illnesses, foods and plants are classed as hot or cold, regardless of their temperature. You treat a “cold” illness with “hot” remedies and vice versa. This idea has roots in the Maya tradition itself, but was reinforced by the Spanish doctrine of the humours.

Illness can also come from wind, ik’ in Yucatec: a force that carries disease. Fright, the evil eye or the loss of part of the soul can also make someone ill. Those illnesses call for a ritual, not just a herb.

There are different kinds of healers. The h-men in Yucatán is a ritual specialist who leads prayers and ceremonies. Yerberos know the plants, hueseros set bones, and parteras, midwives, accompany pregnancy and birth.

Knowledge often passes within families or through an apprenticeship. Sometimes a person is called in a dream or after an illness. Prayers are spoken in the Mayan language, often with candles, copal and offerings.

In Guatemala the midwives, comadronas, are very important: many children in the countryside are born with their help. In 2015 the Guatemalan government recognised their role in a national policy.

A remarkable source is the Ritual of the Bacabs, a manuscript from Yucatán, probably from the late eighteenth century. It contains incantations in Yucatec Maya and herbal remedies against seizures, bites, asthma, toothache, fever and burns, among other things. Ralph Roys translated it in 1965.

The books of Chilam Balam, colonial collections of Maya knowledge, also contain medical texts. There are also the so-called Libros del Judío: recipe books from Yucatán in Spanish, with plant names in Maya.

These texts show how Maya knowledge and Spanish medicine mixed after the conquest.

In Maya communities traditional healers are still consulted, often alongside the clinic. Midwives and bonesetters are especially important.

There are concerns too. In Yucatán plant knowledge disappears when young people do not take up the tradition and cheap medicines take the place of herbs.

At the same time there is a movement to record and protect the knowledge, by Maya organisations themselves and in cooperation with universities.

The Maya pharmacy is rich. Copal, the resin of tropical trees, is burned as incense at every ceremony. Annatto (Bixa orellana) colours food red and is also used as a remedy.

Chaya, a leaf vegetable, is eaten and used as a remedy. Allspice and vanilla come from this region, as does cacao, which had great ritual significance.

Tobacco (Nicotiana) is not smoked for pleasure, but used in rituals and as a remedy for bites and against evil spirits.

Maya healing is a living tradition that belongs to Maya communities. Spiritual ceremonies are not a tourist attraction.

With products from the Maya region, look for fair trade and sustainable harvesting. Tobacco is harmful to health in every form.