When medical anthropology meets linguistics. Language, context and disease analysis in Guaraní manuscrips of colonial Paraguay

CERNO, LEONARDO

Workshop; International Open Workshop. Socio-Environmental Dynamics over the Last 1500 years.; 2019

Thispresentation is about the use of linguistic methodology for the study of socialpractices, particularly for the research on medical practices in colonial SouthAmerica. In this context, some indigenous languages became writing systems,were standardized and latterly used in dictionaries and texts which in turncontributed to normalize name of native plants, diseases and therapies.Bilingual and monolingual codex have circulated in colonial Paraguay, involvingtranslations of Pedro de Montenegro?s MateriaMedica, the most influent medical treatise written in the Jesuit reductionsand used for Indian population?s diseases . We focus on the guarani anonymous manuscriptPohã Ñanã (?herbal medicines?, 1725) comparing different versions and relating language variables with the historicaland social context. Where were used these texts and by whom? Why were theywritten in guarani? Which communicative functions have they fulfill? What canthey tell about native knowledge and cultural processes involved in therapiesand health practices? To what extent are they different of Montenegro?s Materia Medica and other available Spanishtexts? Some findings and methods in the field of historical linguistics cancontribute in giving answers to these questions.