Antípoda. Revista de Antropología y Arqueología

Antipod. Rev. Antropol. Arqueol | eISSN 2011-4273 | ISSN 1900-5407

Therapeutic technologies: interpretation systems in the regla de ocha and spiritism in Bogotá

No. 6 (2008-01-01)
  • Luis Carlos Castro Ramírez

Abstract

The conception of health and illness in Cuban Santeria goes much further than traditional western ideas about them. The etiology of illness finds her cause in aspects that are much more profound, transcending the physical sphere, the visible world of the subject. Being or feeling ill is a product of a variety of situations which may confluence and are beyond organically explications. For the determination of illness the divinatory systems appear as therapeutic technologies which discern the different possible causes of the suffering tormenting the subject.

Keywords: divination systems, therapeutic technology, regla de ocha, spiritism, illness-curing