Health and welfare in a neo-traditionalist initiative in Chile

Abstract

This work describes and characterises four medicinal practices used by members of a transnational movement to reinvigorate Amerindian spiritual traditions in southern Chile. We discuss the historical, archaeological, linguistic and ethnographic frames of reference of each of these practices and underline the significations assigned to them in terms of health and welfare. We likewise identify aspects of the structure, function, contexts and uses in which these practices are deployed, both in the traditional context and the current context in which they were observed. Finally, we infer some of their significant properties, on the basis of which the existence of spiritual medicine can be sustained.