Mbya Guaraní Corporeality in Medical Consultations During Pregnancy

Abstract

This work aims to address the notions of the body during biomedical consultations of Mbya Guarani women in northern Misiones (Argentina). Through an ethnographic approach, it seeks to rethink aspects of Mbya corporealities in medical consultations that are not considered from the biomedical perspective. Biomedical notions are extrapolated to interethnic contexts, where they do not always align with Indigenous ones, yet the women do not completely reject them; sometimes, they give them new meanings. Thinking about the pregnant body from a biomedical perspective limits other aspects to be considered in these settings, such as shyness, which emerges as an expression of interethnic and gender relations, manifesting in particular ways during pregnancy and childbirth.