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Abstract: Within Mapuche indigenous communities in Temuco, Araucanía Region, Chile, traditional healers (machi) and their healing practices are part of everyday life for many people. This article shows that there is a clear tendency for Mapuche people to combine different therapeutic approaches to solve their health problems. We argue, however, that this behaviour is not explained by a crisis of identity among the urban Mapuche community in which the person has lost his or her own indigenous cultural scheme but has not fully assimilated the Westernized model. This article shows that this form of therapeutic pluralism by urban Mapuche is motivated by the adoption of a holistic perception of health and of plural medicinal practices among these indigenous communities.

Keywords: traditional medicine, urban areas, Mapuche, Chile

Résumé : Dans les communautés autochtones Mapuche de Temuco, région d'Araucania, au Chili, les guérisseurs traditionnels (machi) et leurs pratiques de guérison font partie du paysage quotidien de nombreuses personnes. Cet article montre qu'il existe une tendance claire chez les Mapuches à combiner différentes approches thérapeutiques pour résoudre leurs problèmes de santé. Nous suggérons toutefois que ce comportement ne s'explique pas par une crise d'identité parmi la communauté mapuche urbaine qui amènerait une personne à perdre les repères de ses propres schèmes culturels autochtones alors qu'elle n'a pas entièrement assimilé ceux du monde occidentalisé. Cet article montre que cette forme de pluralisme thérapeutique chez les Mapuches urbains découle de l'adoption d'une perception holistique de la santé et de pratiques médicinales diversifiées chez ces communautés autochtones.

Mots-clés : médecine traditionnelle, régions urbaines, Mapuche, Chili

Introduction

Traditional medicinal practices are recognized as part of the primary health care delivery "system" in much of the developing world (Cantor-Graae et al. 2003; Cheung-Blunden and Juang 2008; Colvard et al. 2006), supposing such an umbrella system exists, since we will not claim here such necessary preexistent unity or coherence. According to the World Health Organization (WHO 2002), an estimated 3.5 billion people in the developing world depend on traditional medicine for their primary health care. Nonbiomedical healing systems vary across cultures, but the ontologies they bring into being have in common to maintain mind and body in relation to each other (Pieroni and Vandebroek 2007; Sandhu and Heinrich 2005). In the end, only...

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