one afflicted with a disease related to Tlaloc did
something to displease this god, or perhaps they
hadn’t paid enough respect in honoring him.
When it came to trying to heal diseases
and illnesses in the Aztec culture, the healer
needed wasn’t like a doctor we’d see in a hospital
today. It would be more a religious priest who
could connect with the supernatural world to help
heal. As illnesses were seen to have more mystical
origins, the healing had to be more mystical in
nature. A priest’s job then was not to just treat
physical ailments. It was his duty to find out what
that person had done to anger and upset the gods
(Brelet 1). Their job was to find out what needed
to be done by the ill person in order to make the
gods happy. If an illness was deemed to be caused
by a specific deity, then rituals, offerings,
confessions, and prayers would be made in hopes
to make amends to that specific deity (Ortiz 163).
Thus the members of Aztec society that we would
identify as the doctors and healers had much more
spiritual responsibility that we would connect with
priests and religious figures. These Aztec healers,
however, did not solely focus on the religious and
spiritual aspects of healing. They also needed to
have a “deep knowledge of the clinical features of
illness and of medicinal plants…” as well as being
able to “…master the spirit’s language, know
tricks and magical formulae…to protect and cure
their patients…” (Viesca 274). When it came to
healing with medicine, Aztec doctors made use of
the diverse natural world around them.
Knowledge of natural remedies included over
“…12,000 medicinal plants…used mainly for the
purpose of treating minor ailments” (Brelet 1).
One example is the use of agave sap. The sap
would be placed over fresh wounds, then covered
up as to not allow any air in. The agave sap had an
antibiotic effect, thus it was an efficient and
beneficial cure for scrapes and cuts. This method
was tested in modern times and it was verified that
“the Aztec treatment of wounds was effective by
etic biomedical standards” (Ortiz 185). The
medical practices of the Aztecs show that their
version of a doctor was both a religious figure, as
well a healer well trained in the use of natural
medicines.
Though the means of achieving health
and happiness may be different from what is seen
today, it is evident that the desired end result is
still the same. With Aztec medical practices in
order to achieve balance and live a healthy life,
one had to be respectful and aware of the world
around them. If this balance was disrupted, then
those who could communicate with the
supernatural world were depended on to help the
patient make amends and become well again. It
was with the combination of religious healing and
natural remedies that people were able to be
restored and live healthy lives. The way Aztecs
practiced medicine might seem foreign for those
living today, but it seems that what is desired now
is not so different from what was desired then. All
that’s changed is what tools we use and who we
look up to, to help restore and heal.
Works Cited
Brelet-Rueff, Claudine.
"Culture and Health." UNESCO Courier
51.2 (1998): 6. Academic Search Premier.
Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
Carrasco, David
Religions of Mesoamerica. Long Grove, I
llinois: Waveland Press, Inc., 1990. Print.
Ortiz de Montellano, Bernard R.
Aztec Medicine, Health, and Nutrition.
New Brunswick and London: Rutgers
University Press, 1990. Print.
Viesca, Carlos
"Medicine in Ancient Mesoamerica."
Science Across Cultures: The History of
Non-Western Science. Ed. Helaine Selin.
Secaucus: Kluwer Academic Publishers,
2003. 259-82. Print.
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