Eagle-Stones and terebratulae. Transfer of names and materia medica in South America

IRINA PODGORNY

Londres

Simposio; Geology and Medicine: Exploring the Historical LInks; 2014

Royal Geological Society

The present paper discusses one case history - the transfer of the name and properties of ?eagle-stones? to Andean minerals and terebratulid brachiopods such as Clarkeia antisiensis. ?Eagle-stones? are mentioned in several works on Peruvian minerals and folk medicine from Peru, Bolivia and the Argentine North West. In Bolivia they are called ?águila rumi? . Italian naturalist Antonio Raimondi (1826-1890) mentioned that the hydrated Iron peroxide [care needs to be taken here ? this suggests either the mineral limonite or, perhaps, Goethite; European occurrences are usually nodules of the iron carbonate, siderite] was locally known as ?oetita, eagle-stone or condor-rumi? (Quechua for Condor-stone). The Andean condor, a national symbol of many South American countries, plays an important role in the folklore of the Andean regions and not surprisingly replaced the eagle in the name of the stone. On the other hand, the reports published by the French scientific mission to the Argentine Andes remarked: ?eagle-stones equalled to a kind of trilobites found in the desert of Atacama, where ground eagle-stones are taken as a remedy.? In Bolivia the brachiopods Spirifer condor or S. boliviensis (D?Orbigny 1842) are called eagle-stones and used ? like in the Old World - fastened to the arm of a pregnant woman to prevent abortion. (Fig. 1) Other authors noted that, up until the 1930s, Andean eagle-stones had been traded in the market of Cuzco under the name Hampa Katu.