Health craftsmen: a concept for thinking about the work of rural healers in the North of Antioquia, Colombia

Authors

  • Mauricio Munera Gomez http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2300-9617

    Associate professor at the University of Antioquia, he works in the programs of Doctorate in Education, Master in Education, and Bachelor's degree in Literature and Spanish Language. He is linked to the creation of the Pedagogy in Rurality and Peace program. PhD in Human and Social Sciences from the National University of Colombia. Amongst his publications the highlights are: Biographical and narrative methodologies and their contributions to the development of anthropological processes around health and disease in Peasant Communities (2019) and Peasant Knowledge and Practices of Healing: An approach to traditional medicine in the North of Antioquia, Colombia (2017). Academic coordinator of the book On crossings and other ports: teacher training in the regions of language (2013). He participates in training trajectories around traditional medicines from ancient paths of South America. Email:mauricio.munera1@udea.edu.co

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18800/anthropologica.202001.003

Keywords:

health craftsmen, healers, practices for the care of life, life stories, northern Antioquia

Abstract

This article develops the category of health craftsmen as a concept that refers to the men and women who, in towns of the north of Antioquia, Colombia, utilize hands, heads and hearts in order to offer a service to others, through the development of different practices for the care of life. This reflection is a result of the exercise of qualitative research based on the use of biographical and narrative methodologies for the construction of the life stories of rural healers. This article explores the following characteristics of health craftsmen: they are subjects of experience; they offer their services to the communities and the communities validate their skills; they perform their jobs in the home-workshop as a creation space; and they develop different practices for the care of life thinking about service and not about their transmission or transfer.

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Published

2020-03-12

How to Cite

Munera Gomez, M. (2020). Health craftsmen: a concept for thinking about the work of rural healers in the North of Antioquia, Colombia. Anthropologica Del Departamento De Ciencias Sociales, 38(44), 43–69. https://doi.org/10.18800/anthropologica.202001.003

Issue

Vol. 38 No. 44 (2020): Medical and Health Anthropology: Contributions from the Global South

Section

Call for Papers: Body, sickness and health

License

Copyright (c) 2020 Mauricio Munera Gomez

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.