Part 1 of 2
In Mesoamerica, medicine was accompanied by theories and ideologies that were quite similar to ‘Western’ Humorism. For this, I will divide my writing into 2 sections: the first will be about Maya practices, particularly Classic Maya, I will follow with Nahua practices that goes up to the ruling of the Aztec Triple Alliance.
The ‘4 Humors’ associated parts of the human body with colors and other traits. Red being blood (Heart), blue being phlegm (Brain), black being black bile (Spleen), and yellow being yellow bile (Liver).
To the Maya, their concepts were very similar to ‘Western’ Humorism. However, Maya medicine involved a mix of medical knowledge, the role of doctors, superstitions, and spirits. Maya people also associated plant colors with a body’s color. Red plants, such as chili peppers, were thought to treat blood disorders, rashes and burns. Blue plants, such as the blue morning glory (Ipomoea tricolor), relieved illnesses associated with the nervous system. Yellow plants, such as the Tecoma and Tagetes genera, were associated with the liver and the spleen (based on the color of bile and pus). White plants, such as jimsonweed (Datura stramonium), were associated with death and were not used since they were often poisonous and/or hallucinogenic.
The healers in Maya culture, called aj-men (masculine) or ix-men (feminine), literally meaning «he or she who knows» in Classic Maya. These were their doctors and physicians, who identified the cause(s) of a disease, were knowledgeable of plants/medicines, and interacted with spirits. The Maya believed that the spiritual and physical world was one, having amulets called sastun, meaning «light/mirror stone», in which helped identify the cause(s) and treatment of the disease by listening to the spirits. A healer would know they are doing a bad job if people died by a disease with an unknown cure. However, there isn’t that much information about success when they used traditional medicine. In modern times, Maya descendants are actually low in traditional doctors due to of lack of interests, lack of medical education, and pharmaceutical businesses becoming more ubiquitous.
The Maya civilization, spreading from the Yucatan Peninsula full of limestone, to the dry highlands of southern Guatemala, and the dense humid forests of modern day Petén department of Guatemala, all had diverse ecosystems. Therefore, with more pathogens being more common in diverse systems, meant more potential plants to use as medicine. The differing climates also led to the belief of the Hot-Cold concept, curing the illness based on one temperature with the opposite temperature found in plants or food. For example, cramps and paralyses were ‘cold’ conditions to be treated by ‘hot’ plants or food, such as chili peppers and (chocolate/corn) drinks served hot. Likewise, digestive illnesses, venomous bites, and fevers were ‘hot’ conditions to be treated by ‘cold’ plants or food. This could have been surprising to the Spanish since the Hot-Cold concept was no different from what the Spanish previously adopted from Greco-Roman and Middle Eastern societies.
For some documented herbs and plants used by the Maya people, you may read this pdf from pages 10-18. Here is the first example of what a healer would say during a ritual of a plant that is known to act as an anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antivenin:
Who is the coolness of my hand, alas, when I arrive, oh, to break the great fierce [poisonous] one? I grasp the bowl of my red spring, my white spring, my black spring, when I cool its force [pain]. Oh, I grasp the bowl of my red cenote, my white cenote, my black cenote, when I cool its force [pain]. I grasp the bowl of my red forest pond, oh, my black forest pond, when I cool its force [pain]. I grasp the bowl of my white hail, my black hail, when I cool its force, alas. Amen. [Note that they didn’t actually say “Amen,” but a word or something else similar].
The chacah [gumbo-limbo tree, Bursera simaruba] is to be drunk with two peppers, a little honey, and a little tobacco-juice (Ralph Roys 1965: 36-37).
Lastly, the tuj—temazcal or steam bath in K'iche' Maya—was located in nearly every individual house or communal area, in which was used for ritual, hygienic and therapeutic purposes. The Maya deity, Ixchel, was a goddess who was associated with women, the moon, medicine, and steam baths. According to Franz Termer, in his booked called "Ethnology and Ethnography of Guatemala" (written in Spanish), claims that the steam baths that were once prevalent during the Maya civilization were mostly destroyed during the 1918 influenza pandemic in Guatemala (Termer F. 1957). These baths were suspected as a major source of the virus by health workers and officials. A later source in 1962 by entomologist Niilo Virkki says that these steam baths were "revived" later when the pandemic died out. Though, I'm not sure if these are the most reliable sources for such a claim.