Jampiris and Yachajs

Kallawaya herbalists have dealt with the symptoms of Chagas' disease for many years. Kallawayan herbalists and diviners practiced as early as the Wankaris and Incas, a healing tradition that dates back to A.D. 500. Today, these diviners and traveling herbalists are recognized for their curing techniques in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. Kallawayas live in Northwestern Bolivia near the Peruvian border. Approximately 120 jampiris, the herbalists, and yachajs, the diviners, continue to practice the rituals and herbal healing that have been passed down by their ancestors for over a thousand years.

Andeans have effectively adapted to chagas for thousands of years, illustrating that traditional medical systems can work independently of biomedical systems, and perhaps even more effeciently and economically, and that it is not necessary for Andeans to understand Chagas' disease in terms of Western biomedicine. Conversely, Americans rarely understand how Kallawayan medicine operates. Medical systems are pecular to different cultures, as they function within environmental and sociocultural paramenters. Kallawayan curanderos, for example, provide valuable lessons about the relationship of disease to environment. They symbolically express that chagas spreads through deforestation, impoverishment, and urbanization bringing T. cruzi, vinchucas, animals, and humans into proximity. Chagas' disease results from this imbalance, this disorder, and must be washed away in the river. These ancient medicine men drove home the lesson of an uncared-for earth.