'Los ´tachó´. Consideraciones sobre el origen y función de los parásitos en dos comunidades Mbyá de la provincia de Misiones, Argentina?

CRIVOS, MARTA; MARTÍNEZ, MARÍA ROSA; POCHETTINO, MARÍA LELIA; TEVES, LAURA; REMORINI, CAROLINA; SY, ANAHÍ

Scripta Ethnologica

Redalyc

Lugar: Autónoma de Buenos Aires; Año: 2006 vol. 28 p. 9 - 19

1669-0990

We hereby present the results from a first approach to the knowledge involved in practices and beliefs related with the presence of parasites in the human body in two Guarani Mbyá communities in the province of Misiones. Aborigins' view about the subject was aroused by a series of workshops organized during interdisciplinary research meetings about enteroparasitosis in the region. Morphological criteria -color and size- are vital for characterizing parasites. These derive from feces observation. The degree of pathogenicity and virulence -and, therefore, therapeutics, should be associated to both parameters. Individual / environment duality, as well as functional criteria, make a difference between the natural and pathologycal presence of parasites in the human organism. In the first Mbya ethnophysiology states that 'tacho' normally dwell in the human digestive tract and they are considered an integral component of the normal physiology of digestion. The environment is vital for the appearance of pathogenic entities, either activating inner parasites or allowing external parasites to become incorporated into the organism. According to this view, non pathogenic state would be associated to a supposed state of balance and harmony in the relationship between these communities and the environment, which would be expressed in the observance of ancient cultural patterns, while thepathogenic state is associated to transgression of these patterns and the incorporation of new ways of life.