Preservación y valorización de la medicina ancestral en la comunidad emberá Katío del Alto Sinú: Un estudio sobre sus prácticas curativas tradicionales y su impacto en la salud comunitaria

Abstract

One of the indigenous communities found on the Colombian coast, where the Emberá Katío ethnic group predominates, geographically located in the northwest of the country, we find the Alto Sinú sub-region, a community that has managed to save its natural medicine despite the brutal processes of colonization, violence and displacement. This knowledge represents a tool of resistance and cultural reaffirmation for the community that is trying to recover its territory of natural knowledge and strengthen social organization. We could say that an alternative to this medicine is what today is called (traditional medicine) which has also been accepted in this community, as challenges arise to access health services in the official system due to geographical, cultural and economic barriers. Traditional medicine is integrated and respects the ethnic culture, attending aspects of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health (where their spiritual knowledge is reserved under the right of cultural heritage of this same ethnic group). This research project leaves multiple benefits both academic and cultural based on the knowledge of medicinal knowledge under the approval of this ethnic group Embera Katío, this is because it not only includes a natural health system, but also gives the preservation of their cultural and natural heritage. In the first place we can guarantee a strengthening for the knowledge of the Jaibaná who are the natural doctors of this ethnic group, whose knowledge or knowledge is enriched in an autonomous way through its use with healing plants, whose knowledge is to guarantee the alternatives of traditional medicine where they are inaccessible due to the geographical, economic and cultural obstacle, in this we can also visualize the inclusion of informative dialogue between natural and traditional medicine. Now, this research facilitates the information of bridges of understanding between different health systems since one of the treasures that Colombia shelters is the endemic medicine, it is integrated in figures with high growth, we can guarantee throughout this research project that 204 endemic species are highlighted whose 140 are wide distribution (present in three or other departments) and with restricted distribution we find 64 (present in a single site of the country and two or three departments), its contribution is the social inclusion between the indigenous community and outsiders of this culture. It is possible to observe that these species of restricted distribution as is the case of Umandaukera, Zőiba, Kipará, Párárá whose native and endemic trees or plants manage to constitute a natural patrimony to others it is possible to make known a unique patrimony at national level, where research processes on processes of native medicines in this indigenous community are not shown before, this research will show the strengthening of the knowledge of indigenous knowledge and the healing process that gives different plants to the human body, ensuring the knowledge of the heritage of the Emberá Katío indigenous group.