As modern medicine and technology improve, there is always a deleterious effect on centuries-old traditions, cultures, stories, and practices. Indigenous populations go extinct, traditional cures are invalidated, and the faith in ancient medicine is lost. This drove the Matsés, a tribe in Brazil and Peru, to write a 1000-page medical encyclopedia. This encyclopedia contains all their traditional medicinal practices in great detail.
This encyclopedia, named the Matsés Traditional Medicine Encyclopedia, is the first time their shamans have come together and taken efforts to transcribe their knowledge into words with the help of a conservation group called the Acaté. The initiative was taken after one of the oldest shamans of the Matsés tribe died without being able to pass on the knowledge he gained from his elders, and this precious knowledge has no way of being retrieved. That was when the elders decided to prevent that from happening in the future because a word-of-mouth teaching made this invaluable knowledge very susceptible to being permanently erased from history.
The Importance of Creating an Encyclopedia
The rich knowledge of the tribal medicines and treatment techniques have been orally passed down through many generations of shamans over the last few centuries. Practicing traditional medicine keeps the tribes connected with nature and enables them to use the forest ecosystem around them in a healthy symbiotic relationship. It has often been observed that once a tribe makes contact with the “developed” world, they tend to lose their indigenous knowledge very rapidly. When that happens, the tribe is never able to re-establish the connection with the surrounding nature that they once had.
It has been seen that in such scenarios, the tribe loses its self-sufficiency and has to rely on modern health care, which they have very limited access to due to the remoteness of their location. The scariest part of this is the fact that such tribes end up having high rates of death and disease which can potentially wipe them off the face of the earth. The measures that the Matsés have taken will prevent such a dangerous situation from occurring among the tribe. Forest ecosystems that are home to indigenous tribes are deeply connected to the lives and practices of the tribal groups. Preserving the tribal culture is also an extremely efficient way of rainforest conservation.
Detailing of Ancient Practices
After more than two years of hard work by the tribal people and their shamans, the writing of the encyclopedia was finished in 2017 and has about 1000 pages. The shamans have categorized the entries by the name of the disease followed by a detailed explanation of its symptoms, causes, treatments, preparation of the medicine, and other alternative treatment strategies. For every such entry, a photograph of the plant mentioned has been included for easy identification.
The encyclopedia has been written as a shaman teaching. It also describes the role of the animals in plant development and how they might be connected to disease or be potentially useful in treatment. The most important feature of this encyclopedia is that it is written entirely in Matsés language and will not be translated to Spanish or English. The shamans do not want their precious knowledge to be mistreated, misinterpreted, or misused and prefer keeping it within the tribe.
Every chapter of the encyclopedia has been penned by a shaman elected by the Matsés community. Each shaman was accompanied by a younger tribal who helped him write down the chapter and to photograph the medicinal plants used as ingredients. The compilations of the images and text were done by Wilmer Rodríguez López, a member of their community who also happens to have expertise in the written script of the Matsés language. The compiled document was assessed and edited by a group of shamans, which took several days.
Reintroduction of Traditional Medicine
The writing of the encyclopedia brought together many shamans from across the various tribal habitations and has put together the collective knowledge that they have individually gained from their elders. However, this is just the First Phase of the project they are on. The Second Phase, which has already commenced, included recruiting young Matsés who accompany an elder shaman during treatment and fabrication of medicines and tinctures. This apprenticeship program has seen success in the past and the current shamans wish to continue this in the future, with primary importance given to settlements without a resident traditional healer. The Third Phase is the integration of the best and most feasible practices of Western medicine with these old practices so the tribal people can get the best healthcare system available. Acaté is helping them expand their cultivation of medicinal herbs, hence the locals will not have to travel for hours in search of a treatment in case of an emergency.
Matsés and their traditions have lived in the protective arms of their rainforests for centuries. They have a connection with the soul of the forests and its individual components. By protecting this delicate balance, they will be protected against the diseases that are crippling the modern world, such as depression, diabetes, and other diseases that typically get introduced to tribes soon after they try to mingle with the outside world. In a way, conservation of these essential cultural relationships of tribes and their environment is a very efficient way towards preventive healthcare, while also respecting and nourishing the Amazon rainforest that has been their home for generations.
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