Kallawaya people

Kallawaya people are an itinerant group of healers living in the Andes of Bolivia. They live in the Bautista Saavedra region, a mountainous area north of La Paz.cite web |url=http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?topic=mp&cp=BO |title=Proclamation 2003: "The Andean Cosmovision of the Kallawaya" |accessdate=2007-09-19] They are members of the Mollo culture and are direct descendants of Tiwanaku culture.cite web |url=http://www.boliviacontact.com/en/sugerencia/carnaval/kallawaya.php |title=Wisdom of Mollo Culture Kallawaya |accessdate=2007-09-19] According to the UNESCO Safeguarding Project, the Kallawaya can be traced to the pre-Inca period.cite web |url=http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?topic=mp&cp=BO |title=Proclamation 2003: "The Andean Cosmovision of the Kallawaya" |accessdate=2007-09-19]

Healers

Kallawaya doctors ("médicos Kallawaya"), are known as the naturopathic healers of Inca kings,cite web |url=http://www.sacredheritage.com/andean.html |title=KALLAWAYA HEALERS |accessdate=2007-09-19] and as keepers of science knowledge, principally the pharmaceutical properties of vegetables, animals and minerals.cite web |url=http://www.boliviacontact.com/en/sugerencia/carnaval/kallawaya.php |title=Wisdom of Mollo Culture Kallawaya |accessdate=2007-09-19] Most Kallawaya healers understand how to use 300 herbs, while specialists are familiar with 600 herbs. Kallawaya women are often midwives, treat gynecological disorders, and pediatric patients.cite web |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=7myXytFLG7QC&pg=PA121&lpg=PA121&dq=-wiki+kallawaya+language&source=web&ots=UXvolD6Je-&sig=yU_EQjP2eGr_apxRimCM_30e1kE |title=Bolivia |author=Vivien Lougheed |accessdate=2007-09-19] Kallawaya healers travel through northwestern Bolivia and parts of Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Panama, and Peru. Often they are on foot, walking ancient Inca trails, through the tropics, mountain valleys and highland plateaus, while looking for traditional herbs.cite web |url=http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20041030/BOLIVIA30 |title=Bewitched in Bolivia |author=Michele Peterson |publisher=The Globe and Mail |date=2007-10-30 |accessdate=2007-09-19]

Prior to leaving their homes to heal the sick, the Kallawayas perform a ceremonial dance. The dance and costumary are expressed as the "yatiri", or healer. The choreography is noted for the "llantucha" of "suri", clothing made of ostrich feathers and used as protection against the elements while they travel to their patients, carrying "khapchos" or "male" bags that contain herbs, mixes, and talismans.cite web |url=http://www.boliviacontact.com/en/sugerencia/carnaval/kallawaya.php |title=Wisdom of Mollo Culture Kallawaya |accessdate=2007-09-19] Groups of musicians, "kantus" play drums and pan flutes during the ritual ceremonies to establish contact with the spirit world before the healer visits patients.cite web |url=http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?topic=mp&cp=BO |title=Proclamation 2003: "The Andean Cosmovision of the Kallawaya" |accessdate=2007-09-19]

Language

The language of their trade is the Kallawaya language, a language encoded with medicinal knowledge, a secret language of the Incas ("machay jucay").cite web |url=http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/dharris2/kallawaya.php |title=Kallawaya: A Secret language for medicinal knowledge |accessdate=2007-09-19] cite web |url=http://www.boliviacontact.com/en/sugerencia/carnaval/kallawaya.php |title=Wisdom of Mollo Culture Kallawaya |accessdate=2007-09-19] For general conversation, they speak the more common Quechua language.cite web |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/09/070918-languages-extinct_2.html |title=Languages Racing to Extinction in 5 Global "Hotspots" |accessdate=2007-09-19]

References

Further reading

* Abdel-Malek, S, et al. 1995. "Drug Leads from the Kallawaya Herbalists of Bolivia". 1. Background, Rationale, Protocol and Anti-HIV Activity. Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 50, no. 3: 157.
* Bastien, Joseph William. "Healers of the Andes: Kallawaya Herbalists and Their Medicinal Plants". Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1987. ISBN 0874802784
* Janni, Kevin D, and Joseph W Bastien. 2004. "Special Section on Medicinal Plants - Exotic Botanicals in the Kallawaya Pharmacopoeia". Economic Botany. 58: S274.
* Krippner, S., and E. S. Glenney. 1997. "The Kallawaya Healers of the Andes". The Humanistic Psychologist : Bulletin of the Division of Humanistic Psychology, Division 32 of the American Psychological Association. 25, no. 2: 212.

External links

* [http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/dharris2/Kallawaya_Resources.php Articles list, various authors, prepared by Dr. K. David Harrison, Swarthmore University]
* [http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-749903/Kallawaya Encyclopedia Britannica on Kallawaya people]
* [http://www.britannica.com/eb/art-57627/Kallawaya-Indians-harvesting-potatoes-on-a-mountainside-near-Charazani-Bolivia Encyclopedia Britannica Photo of Kallawaya near Charazani, Bolivia]
* [http://www.livingtongues.org/kallawaya.html Kallawaya] by Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages