Preface

LÓPEZ, MARIEL A.

Folk medicine and heritage. European healing in Buenos Aires (1870-1940)

Edizioni Diodati

Lugar: Padova; Año: 2023; p. 7 - 10

In recent years, folk medicine has been the object of interest to histo-rians. Our PhD thesis on history focused on this phenomenon in Buenos Aires Province (1870-1944)1 where we focus our attention in how the folk medicine and the scientific medicine cohabitated in the rural area of the Buenos Aires Province. During our research, we could notice the constant presence of immigrants and their medical practices. Thus, our aim is an in-depth study of European folk medi-cine tradition and its contribution to Argentinian folk medicine (me-dicina popular criolla). In this way, we will try to identify borrowings between both healing traditions and prove the ongoing circulation of people and knowledge through time and space. This is essential to highlight its relevance as part of the Argentinian intangible heritage. We believe that preservation of the European medical intangible her-itage must be included on the public agenda due to the undeniable links produced by the continuous migratory waves to Argentina. Those immigrants had wide knowledge of folk medicine practices that were usually accepted in the Argentinian countryside. This hap-pened on a time where the science, and medicine began to develop, this process is known as medicalization.