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Revista pueblos y fronteras digital
On-line version ISSN 1870-4115
Abstract
HIROSE LOPEZ, Javier. El cuerpo y la persona en el espacio-tiempo de los mayas de Los Chenes, Campeche. Rev. pueblos front. digit. [online]. 2007, vol.2, n.4, pp.370-400. ISSN 1870-4115. https://doi.org/10.22201/cimsur.18704115e.2007.4.225.
For the mayan traditional healers of the Chenes region in Campeche, winik, the term used to designate a “person”, “man” or “individual”(Barrera-Vázquez 2001), is closely linked to the healing rituals and the principles of mayan cosmology. The Cartesian world view, proper to the occidental mind, separates the body from the mind and the spirit. In contrast, for the mayan, the person has a material aspect, the body, kukut, which resembles the cosmos, with four orientations and a center, and is the manifestation of the elements present in nature: earth, water, fire, wind and light. Simultaneously, the same components that conform its materiality, are manifest as subtle entities that let the individual interact with the different levels of the cosmos. This interaction takes place in a dimension defined by a four sided space which moves in the universe in a counter-clockwise direction.
Keywords : mayan cosmovision; traditional healing; mayan ceremonies; human body.