The temazcal between past and present

The present work is part of a reflection on the phenomenon of the Maya Resurgence and, in specific, on its request to integrate traditional medicine with that of official medicine. The work outlines a discussion of the traditional practices of the Guatemalan comadronas during child-birth and attention was primarily focused on the temazcal. Through historical and religious analysis, the meanings this institution represented in Pre-Columbian times were investigated and their evolution through time, if only summarily, were outlined. In a dialectic rapport with the world vision that the Occidental brought, the temazcal changed, according to the results obtained through our analysis, from a theatre of combat with the underworld, to a place where indispensable “heat” was unleashed to warm the mother in childbirth, who during her delivery reaches her maximum state of coldness (Guatemala), or a mystical place in which contact with Mother Earth is experienced (Mexico).O presente trabalho faz parte de uma reflexão sobre o fenômeno do Ressurgimento Maia e, em especial, sobre o seu desejo de integração entre a medicina tradicional e a medicina oficial. Neste trabalho, a discussão limitou-se às práticas tradicionais das comadronas de língua maia por ocasião do parto e focalizou-se a atenção principalmente no temazcal. Lançando mão da análise histórico-religiosa, indagou-se sobre os significados que esta instituição tinha na época pré-colombiana e delineou-se, ainda que sumariamente, a sua evolução no decorrer do tempo. Em uma relação dialética com a visão de mundo ocidental, o temazcal transformou-se, conforme os resultados a que nos conduziu a nossa análise, de teatro de uma tensão com o inframundo, para permitir que emergisse e fosse posteriormente “re-criada” culturalmente uma nova vida, a lugar que libera o “calor” indispensável ao aquecimento da puérpera, que no parto atinge o seu estado de máximo frio (Guatemala) ou a lugar místico no qual vivenciar um contato com a Mãe Terra (México)

Cuerpo y simbolismo amerindio: diseño museográfico y docente de la colección complutense del Museo de Arqueología y Etnología de América (MAEA, Facultad de Geografía e Historia) referida al cuerpo humano

Depto. de Historia de América y Medieval y Ciencias HistoriográficasFac. de Geografía e HistoriaFALSEsubmitte

El origen del maíz en relación a los dos géneros y la creación de la tierra fértil en el mito de Tlaltecuhtli

In the modern maize myths of the Mayan area and the Gulf Coast where the protagonist is a woman, it is established that her sacrifice, usually carried out by the Sun, is the necessary event to transform what she contains at the potential level into concrete goods, that is corn. However, in cases where the protagonist is male, his death, brought on by his grandmother or his mother, is what makes the young man’s transformation into the maize god possible. In a similar vein, Mexica culture establishes that it is the sacrifice of the primal female entity, performed by male deities, which creates the fertile earth in the cosmogonist myth of Tlaltecuhtli, of which a new reading is proposed. This transformation of the female telluric matter into fruitful land in the myth has a masculine valence. Congruently, it had to be a man who wore the skin of the goddess Toci after her sacrifice and flaying in the month Ochpaniztli to propitiate the periodic regeneration of vegetation and in primis of maize.En los mitos modernos relativos al maíz del área maya y de la costa del Golfo, cuando el protagonista es una mujer se establece que su sacrificio, generalmente operado por el Sol, es el evento necesario a traducir en bienes concretos lo que ella contiene a nivel potencial, los granos de maíz; viceversa, cuando el protagonista es un varón, su muerte, provocada tanto por su abuela como por su madre, es lo que permite la transformación del joven en el dios del maíz. Símilmente, en el mito cosmogónico de Tlaltecuhtli, del cual se propone una nueva lectura, la cultura mexica establece que es el sacrificio de la entidad primigenia femenina, realizado por deidades masculinas, el acto creador de la Tierra bondadosa. Esta transformación de la materia telúrica femenina en tierra fértil, en el mito en cuestión, tiene una valencia masculina. De manera congruente, en la veintena Ochpaniztli, propiciatoria de la regeneración periódica de la vegetación e in primis del maíz, tenía que ser un varón el que vistiera la piel de la diosa Toci, después de su sacrificio y despellejamiento

Geoeconomic variations in epidemiology, ventilation management, and outcomes in invasively ventilated intensive care unit patients without acute respiratory distress syndrome: a pooled analysis of four observational studies

Background: Geoeconomic variations in epidemiology, the practice of ventilation, and outcome in invasively ventilated intensive care unit (ICU) patients without acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) remain unexplored. In this analysis we aim to address these gaps using individual patient data of four large observational studies. Methods: In this pooled analysis we harmonised individual patient data from the ERICC, LUNG SAFE, PRoVENT, and PRoVENT-iMiC prospective observational studies, which were conducted from June, 2011, to December, 2018, in 534 ICUs in 54 countries. We used the 2016 World Bank classification to define two geoeconomic regions: middle-income countries (MICs) and high-income countries (HICs). ARDS was defined according to the Berlin criteria. Descriptive statistics were used to compare patients in MICs versus HICs. The primary outcome was the use of low tidal volume ventilation (LTVV) for the first 3 days of mechanical ventilation. Secondary outcomes were key ventilation parameters (tidal volume size, positive end-expiratory pressure, fraction of inspired oxygen, peak pressure, plateau pressure, driving pressure, and respiratory rate), patient characteristics, the risk for and actual development of acute respiratory distress syndrome after the first day of ventilation, duration of ventilation, ICU length of stay, and ICU mortality. Findings: Of the 7608 patients included in the original studies, this analysis included 3852 patients without ARDS, of whom 2345 were from MICs and 1507 were from HICs. Patients in MICs were younger, shorter and with a slightly lower body-mass index, more often had diabetes and active cancer, but less often chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and heart failure than patients from HICs. Sequential organ failure assessment scores were similar in MICs and HICs. Use of LTVV in MICs and HICs was comparable (42·4% vs 44·2%; absolute difference -1·69 [-9·58 to 6·11] p=0·67; data available in 3174 [82%] of 3852 patients). The median applied positive end expiratory pressure was lower in MICs than in HICs (5 [IQR 5-8] vs 6 [5-8] cm H2O; p=0·0011). ICU mortality was higher in MICs than in HICs (30·5% vs 19·9%; p=0·0004; adjusted effect 16·41% [95% CI 9·52-23·52]; p<0·0001) and was inversely associated with gross domestic product (adjusted odds ratio for a US$10 000 increase per capita 0·80 [95% CI 0·75-0·86]; p<0·0001). Interpretation: Despite similar disease severity and ventilation management, ICU mortality in patients without ARDS is higher in MICs than in HICs, with a strong association with country-level economic status