Abstract

DE LAS MERCEDES RODRIGUEZ, Lizbeth. Of natural remedies and diseases: oral transmission of domestic use of plants with medicinal purposes in Campeche, Mexico. Apuntes [online]. 2012, vol.25, n.1, pp.62-71. ISSN 1657-9763.

The oral transmission of knowledge about the domestic use of plants for medicinal purposes in some communities in Campeche, Mexico, is included within the Intangible Cultural Heritage because its transmission from generation to generation, since pre-hispanic times. As part of a sense that the modern Maya still have to the land that provides them with plants and their use to restore the health of the individual, this paper describes the knowledge and use of plants in order to cure common diseases in urban and rural families in particular. To cure these pathologies in a domestic way is not required a deep knowledge and rituals as in the case of so-called herbalists, 'curanderos' or h-menoob [priests, in Maya language]. Although this knowledge has survived, adjustments to the current Mexican law are needed in order to preserve the application of medicinal plants to treat common ailments to avoid the loss of this oral transmission.

Keywords : intangible cultural heritage; oral tradition; domestic medicine; medicinal plants; Ethnobotany; Useful plants; Botanic medicine; Medicinal plant.

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