Inquisitor as Physician: Friars, Inquisitors, Women, and Medical Knowledge in Early Colonial New Spain (1530–1650)

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 582-604
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Holler
Keyword(s):  
Medical Practice ◽  
New Spain ◽  
Medical Knowledge ◽  
Religious Involvement ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
European Origin ◽  
Early Colonial ◽  
Medical Theory ◽  
Medical Traditions ◽  
Medical Regime

Abstract New Spain was the site not only of one of the largest-scale missionary enterprises in Christian history, but also of a prolonged encounter among diverse medical traditions of Mesoamerican, African, and European origin in which male missionaries were central. Given the paucity of licensed physicians in the colony, religious involvement in medical practice remained significant throughout the colonial period. This paper considers the confluence of religion and medicine in the encounters that friars and inquisitors had with women, arguing that in these encounters, missionaries and inquisitors participated in the translation, circulation, and creation of medical knowledge and positioned themselves as both theological and medical authorities, as proponents and translators of Galenic medical theory, and as “confessor-physicians” rather than “confessor-judges.” Women thus played a crucial interlocutory role in the articulation of a colonial religio-medical regime whose primary framers were not physicians, but clergymen.

“BIG-OLD LONG LIPS, BIG-OLD JAR NOSE”: ANCIENT MESOAMERICAN MONSTERS AND CLOWNS AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF CHRISTIANITY IN EARLY COLONIAL MEXICO

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Ben Leeming
Keyword(s):  
New Spain ◽  
Indigenous Population ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Colonial Mexico ◽  
Royal Court ◽  
Early Colonial ◽  
Transgressive Behavior

Abstract During the early Colonial period, Native writers, working under the aegis of mendicant friars, composed Christian texts in the Nahuatl language as part of the Roman Catholic Church's efforts to indoctrinate the Indigenous population of New Spain. Yet these Native “ghost-writers” were far from passive participants in the translation of Christianity. Numerous studies since the 1980s have demonstrated how Native writers exerted influence on the presentation of Christianity, in effect “indigenizing” the message and allowing for the persistence of essential elements of the Mesoamerican worldview. This article focuses on descriptions of demons and sinners drawn from Nahuatl-Christian texts and argues that Native writers drew on an ancient Mesoamerican repertoire of imagery involving physical deformity and transgressive behavior (the “monster-clown complex”). In pre-contact times, such imagery was associated with specific figures, including Olmec dwarfs, Maya “fat men,” and comic performers attached to the Mexica royal court. In each of these figures, both physical deformity and humor rendered them powerful, liminal beings often referred to as ritual clowns. By drawing upon this “monster-clown complex,” Native writers transformed what were intended to be terrifying motivators of conversion into something very different: morally neutral, supernaturally powerful, and ultimately essential members of the Mesoamerican sacred realm.

scholarly journals Bioethical Threads in the Reflection of Tibetan Refugees in India

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 436
Author(s):  
Marcin Lisiecki
Keyword(s):  
Medical Practice ◽  
Tibetan Buddhism ◽  
Modern Medicine ◽  
The State ◽  
Tibetan Medicine ◽  
Sex Reassignment ◽  
Dalai Lama ◽  
Basic Concepts ◽  
Tibetan Refugees ◽  
Medical Traditions

This article aims to trace and describe the bioethical threads in medical practice and the understanding of medicine among Tibetan refugees living in India. Taking up such a task results mainly from the fact that only traces of bioethical reflection are visible in Tibetan society, but without the awareness that it requires systematic reflection on its essence and changes that accompany modern medicine. I define the state of the discussion on Tibetan bioethics as preparadigmatic, i.e., one that precedes the recognition of the importance of bioethics and the elaboration of its basic concepts. In this paper, I will show how the Tibetan refugees today, in an unconscious way, approach bioethics, using the example of life-related topics, namely beginning and death. To this end, I chose topics such as abortion, fetal sex reassignment, euthanasia, and suicide. On this basis, I will indicate the main reasons that hinder the emergence of bioethics and those that may contribute to systematic discussions in the future. An introduction to Tibetan medicine will precede these considerations. I will show how medical traditions, especially the Rgyud bzhi text, are related to Tibetan Buddhism and opinions of the 14th Dalai Lama.

Childhood in the Early Colonial Period

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1974 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-73
Author(s):  
Harry Bloch
Keyword(s):  
Child Labor ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Child Life ◽  
Massachusetts Bay ◽  
African Slave ◽  
Early Colonial ◽  
Plymouth Colony ◽  
Massachusetts Bay Colony ◽  
The Great Migration ◽  
Poor Children

A great deal has been written about the life, struggles, and accomplishments of pioneer men and women who crossed the ocean to build a new world in the wilderness; but infant and child life during early colonial days is largely hidden in obscurity. Little has been recorded.1 It is known that few children under the age of 7 survived in the crowded immigrant ships: falling into the sea, accidents, hunger, thirst, and sickness took its sad toll. Nevertheless, there were many young2-5: a third of the founders of Plymouth were children; Puritan youth were evident in the great migration to the Massachusetts Bay Colony; several cargoes of poor children and orphans from Dutch almshouses were "bound out" to the burghers of New Netherlands; children were frequently dispatched from England as indentured servants and apprentices; the London Company sent 100 children to Virginia in 1619, and 1,500, kidnapped from Ireland and England, in 1627; African slave children were shipped to the colonies after 1620; and the colonial mother6 bore many children, buried many, and often followed them to the grave at an early age. Fecundity,5 characteristic of early colonists, served to people a continent (the population was 2.5 million in 1776), and provided needed child labor. Over 50% of Plymouth colony consisted of children.7 Colonial children were viewed as miniature adults; and boys and girls were dressed alike until the age of 7.1,7,8 The infant1,7 wore a long linen smock; was covered with a woolen blanket; and a wooden or wicker cradle, hooded to protect from cold draughts, much like those in which Indian babies slept, was its bed.

On Being a Physician

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth G Nabel
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Medical Education ◽  
Lifelong Learning ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Medical Practice ◽  
Medical Knowledge ◽  
Health Care Team ◽  
Medical Professionalism ◽  
Standards Of Accreditation

The role of a physician as healer has grown more complex, and emphasis will increasingly be on patient and family-centric care. Physicians must provide compassionate, appropriate, and effective patient care by demonstrating competence in the attributes that are essential to successful medical practice. Beyond simply gaining medical knowledge, modern physicians embrace lifelong learning and need effective interpersonal and communication skills. Medical professionalism encompasses multiple attributes, and physicians are increasingly becoming part of a larger health care team. To ensure that physicians are trained in an environment that fosters innovation and alleviates administrative burdens, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has recently revamped the standards of accreditation for today’s more than 130 specialties and subspecialties. This chapter contains 6 references and 5 MCQs.

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