Kallawayan Physiology

Jampiris and yachajs symbolically interpret symptoms of Chagas, disease and refer to natural deities that have little power over our bodies, similar to the image T. cruzi. They rarely refer to disease entities, instead referring mostly to symptoms, which they reinterpret for specific purposes such as to perform a ritual, redress a conflict, or produce a male offspring. Chagas lends itself to multiple interpretations because of its unclear and varied symptomology, being difficult to diagnose without laboratory tests given by doctors.

A chasm exists between the jampiris and yachajs and Western-trained doctors in how to treat chagas. Jampiris and yachajs aren't concerned with the clinical interpretations of chagas symptoms, though they recognize that many of their patients go to medical doctors. They usually refrain from advising patients to seek help from medical doctors because a doctor's treatment can be inadequate and is expensive. Often, western medical practitioners claim a priviledged sense of truth about chagas and this brings about a biomedical ethics concern. However, the Andeans prefer not to compete with doctors in regard to the spiritual health of their people. There is a saying, that "the ant is the king of the jungle, and one has to respect them and learn to live with them," pointing to the biodiversity that flourishes in the Andes and Amazon.

Jampiris and yachajs always consult coca leaves to interpret the symptoms of Chagas' disease. For example, an enlarged heart is particularly meaningful to them as chuyma usu (heart sickness), possible caused by a death, unrequinted love, slapping a mother-in-law, or indigestion. Empacho, a blockage of circulating bodily fluids, has many possible explanations connected to cutting oneself off from the nutritive fluids or substenance of the environment. A simple parasitic explanation does not satisfy Andeans' desires for semiotically rich interpretations of ailments.

According to Kallawayan physiology, the body is a skeletal-muscular framework witrh openings, conduits, and processing organs. Fluids enter and are processed into other fluids. Poisons that develop from distillation must be periodically eliminated before they attain toxic levels. Illness is caused by obstructed tubes and accumulated fluids, gas, urine, feces, mucus, and sweat. Kallawayans employ enemas, emetics, and sweat baths to cleanse the body of these fluids. They recognize chagasic symptoms and understand them as a malfunctioning of the body's hydraulic system rather than the intrusion of the T. cruzi parasite.

The widespread practice of emetics and purges in Andean medicine for the last thousand years results from dealing with the congestions of Chagas' disease, such as in the heart, colon, and esophagus. For this reason, peasants most readily associate chagas with empacho - meaning their bodily fluids no longer circulate from within the body to the outside but are locked into a centripetal movement. In educating Andeans about Chagas' disease, a comparison can be made with the parasitic relationship of T. cruzi to vinchucas, animals, and humans in that this microorganism flows in and out of the body in what could be called centripetal and centrifugal motion.