Bonesetting and radiography in the southern Maya highlands.
Maya bonesetters and their clients have been affected by the entry of radiographic technology into highland Guatemala. Bonesetters rely on a form of embodied knowledge to perform their manual work, the kind of knowledge X-rays threaten to supersede. This article examines how Maya bonesetters are meeting this challenge to their legitimacy and how they are positioning themselves pragmatically within a world of changing biomedical resources and contested health knowledge.
Hinojosa
Servando
S
Department of Psychology and Anthropology, University of Texas-Pan America, Edinburg, Texas 78541, USA. hinojosas@panam.edu
D002489:Central America; D005592:Fracture Fixation / Q000379:methods*; D050723:Fractures, Bone / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000208:ethnology / Q000628:therapy*; D006303:Health Services, Indigenous / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D007199:Indians, South American; D008519:Medicine, Traditional; D011859:Radiography