Guaral and Leishmaniasis: Violent Encounters between Indigenous Medicine and Biomedicine in Conflict-Ridden Colombia

• In Event: Unsettling STS 1

Abstract

This paper brings two histories together: the development of leishmaniasis first-line therapy–Glucantime–in France during WWII and the origins of American cutaneous leishmaniasis as a pre-Hispanic illness. It analyzes how these two histories meet in contemporary times in forested and rural areas of Colombia, a country that has gone through more than 50 years of armed conflict where leishmaniasis is often identified as “the war disease” or “the guerrilla disease”. This work is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted at a biomedical research institute's clinical facility and through the experiences of Awá indigenous people dealing with guaral–the word they use to refer to this disease. I explore the clash between biomedical and indigenous conceptualizations of disease, health and medicines that holds additional complexities given the entanglement between leishmaniasis and the Colombian war. Warfare marked the development of the pharmaceutical most commonly used to treat leishmaniasis, and it still marks how Glucantime circulates and is used today in Colombia. At the same time, scientists have played a significant role discrediting traditional medicine assuming its uselessness and failing to recognize that, if it weren’t for indigenous treatments, leishmaniasis-caused suffering would be more extensive in rural Colombia. Although Colombia recognizes itself as a multicultural and pluriethnic state, I argue that the case of guaral/leishmaniasis shows that colonialism pervades biomedical research, that scientific knowledge remains the exclusive and exclusionary voice in health policy, and that intercultural approaches to health have not been entirely successful and are yet to be acknowledged as peacebuilding opportunities.

Author

• Lina Beatriz Pinto Garcia, York University