Inka tradition?

[Freija]

This thread may qualify for the comedy section....but I am not sure 

I´ve just come home from a New Age venture where I met an "Inka shaman" who were healing people by sucking their throats! (no,no...NO vampire...an Inka SHAMAN LOL)  He made some money out of that. And he is definitely Native from South America.

Please please let me know if this is traditional inka healing procedures 

[educatedindian]

Some kinds of folk healing in Latin America do involve the belief that a healer can suck out the illness from the body. Never heard of any that focus on the throat, and never have heard of them claiming to be shamans, Inka or otherwise. They generally have names like curandera, cura, or partera, and most of them are women. Sounds like this guy isn't genuine either, and wants an excuse to give women hickies. Curanderismo is a mix of NDN, African, and European folk healing, but it has its share of fakes too, or simply ones who don't know what they're doing. A curandero lived across the street from me many years ago, big billboard in the front yard. He had a heart attack while in his forties.

[debbieredbear]

Sucking on the thraot? Sounds like hickies to me.

[Freija]

Paying 70 USD for some hickies seems a little bit....hrm...expensive....

Actually, Inka shamanism seems to become more and more popular in Sweden. And I know about the spitting...people walking around with bottles, taking sips and spitting all over the place. It costs a LOT to learn to spit the right way but it is becoming more popular than the sweats. It is less complicated, I guess.
So since spittingcourses are quite common, I thought making hickies was connected to the spitting....somehow....    

[nahualqo]

I know little of the Inca culture. However I have seen sucking being performed in Native American medicine. Usually through a bone which is then blown out through water or alcohol. I have seen spitting out of tequila among Mayan medicine work. It seems unlikely that sucking without the release by blowing would sound proper because breathing, blowing, sucking are animistic and so have power, to retain that power or set it loose would be contrary to the very purpose of removing the offending animus.

I have provided a resource of Native American sucking medicine. http://www.mpm.edu/wirp/ICW-34.html

Sucking Doctors

The sucking doctor worked to remove the cause of sickness by sucking it out of the patient's body. This mode of curing was widely practiced throughout North America and in other parts of the world. After he had accepted the initial gift of tobacco that constituted a request for treatment, the doctor stipulated the time, the place, and the price of the ceremony. The ceremonies ordinarily were held in the evening or at night, and a small group of witnesses were present. The group would include the doctor, his assistant or runner, the patient, and a few spectators, often friends or relatives of the patient. Dogs were banned from the vicinity as their barking might cause the doctor to choke. The doctor's personal equipment consisted of a small tambourine drum, a gourd or tin-can rattle, and two or three tubes that were kept in a deerskin bag or cloth wrapping. The tubes, exposed only at curings, were sections of deer bone about three inches long.

In more recent times, the tubes were brass cartridge cases with the ends removed. The patient, usually partially stripped, was stretched out on the floor on a blanket. Tobacco was passed, and each person would take a pinch. The doctor dedicated the tobacco to the spirits and enlisted their aid. All the while, he shook his rattle and was accompanied by the assistant's drumming. With the tube projecting from his mouth he kneeled over the patient, moving about until he located the place where the sickness originated, sucked out the object through the tube, and spit both it and the tube into the shallow dish. The drumming ceased and the dish was passed around for inspection. If any foreign matter had been drawn out of the patient, it was thrown into the fire. Several such suckings might occur before any matter was visible in the dish. A curing ritual might last from a half hour to two hours, depending upon the success or wishes of the doctor.

I have never seen medicine performed that isn't serious with drumming, songs and the use of other participants, medicine paraphenalia such as plant derived pharmacopia, sacred rattles or other sacred objects enjoined during an extended period.

This thread may qualify for the comedy section....but I am not sure 

I´ve just come home from a New Age venture where I met an "Inka shaman" who were healing people by sucking their throats! (no,no...NO vampire...an Inka SHAMAN LOL)  He made some money out of that. And he is definitely Native from South America.

Please please let me know if this is traditional inka healing procedures 

[frederica]

Actually, Inka shamanism seems to become more and more popular in Sweden. And I know about the spitting...people walking around with bottles, taking sips and spitting all over the place. It costs a LOT to learn to spit the right way but it is becoming more popular than the sweats. It is less complicated, I guess.
So since spittingcourses are quite common, I thought making hickies was connected to the spitting....somehow....    

[/quote][/pre]Spitting is not that uncommon. Whole towns do it on certain Feast Days. Santarias also use this. I would wonder if the meaning is the same? Like the Sucking, what are they using it for and is the meaning the same? I have never heard of direct contact. And there is good reasons for that. frederica

[Freija]

Thanks for the info! I guess it is the same old thing: some exploiter takes bits and pieces from real ceremonies and traditions and makes a tasty New Age soup of it. A very expensive soup, too...

I have not checked out all the details....it´s just that when you see these things being done for money right in the middle of fortunetellers, anglehealers, tarotcards, crystalballs, "spiritual surgery" (big thing here) etc. it looks pretty crazy even if it does have some connection to the real culture. Some of those "Inka shamans" coming here recently did a healing ceremony - on national TV!!

I am getting a little bit worried here....due to all the information we´ve brought out about how Northamerican Indians feel about the exploitation, the interest has now moved to South American tribes because "those Indians are much nicer..."     I guess I´ve gotto find some angry South American Natives and invite them over here to even it up. (Sigh)

[nahualqo]

People aculturated in Western society without any previous heritage of orginal belief see behaviors and actions from Medicine people as simple behaviors as if they were made up. They don't have the factual basis to understand the myriad connections to animistic sources which are internal behaviors with little outside tells to understand what is happening for the noninitiate. Understanding an illness as an animus takes long training along with talent if it is done properly. I believe that much nuage stuff borders on entertainment and diversions. For someone to go to a fair with astrologers and Tarot Card readers along with a Medicine person, well, to me they get what they pay for, entertainment.

There is nothing new age about Native American Medicine. If you go to a place that functions like a snake oil tent in a Wild West Carnival then there exists the rubes and the carnis. The dynamic there is one of separating you from your money. Native American Medicine derives from deep spiritual beliefs that have specific definitions and language among specific people. Someone not versed in the deeper spiritual meanings of a particular culture would not be a good candidate for a medicine person to choose to heal. Also Native American healing takes place over years often enough. I was once healed and it took 8 years of living in a prescribed place with many behavioral taboos. Even though my symptoms were quickly dissipated, I was told that the healing would only take place under certain conditions. It took eight years for those conditions to take place in order to complete the cerimony and feel completely healed.

In another healing, I have asthma due to allergies. I don't live where I was raised and I came to a place where I acquired allergies for the first time in my life. After about 16 years of living under those conditions, my immune system became very debilitated. I started getting bronchial pneumonia in October and I would continue to fight it until May. I would spend months on antibiotics and it was debilitating my whole system. Modern doctors could not cure it. I finally resorted to Native American medicine. I was told it was going to be painful. The practical aspect of the healing was a big poltice of herbes and mustard in cloth. Slowly boiling water was dribbled upon the poltice on my upper chest. After about an hour of this my chest was burning from the hotness of the water and the active ingrediants of the poltice, I left it on all night. It caused a huge chemical and heat burn on my chest and took 6 months to heal in and of itself. God bless I have not been subjected with bronchial pneumonia since then, no more antibiotics and my body's antihistemic reactions have been greatly lessened and my immune system has greatly improved. It has been eight years free of bronchial pneumonia. Well worth the cure.

It is not uncommon for people in my area to die each year from bronchial pneumonia due to asthmatic allergies. I feel extremely blessed for the healing and subsequent health. Not many Western people would undergo the healing that helped me dramatically. Nobody would line up at a fair to get that done to them. In Native American healing there are often responsibilities and pledges that one must attend to after healing. If you are unable, unwilling to attend to those responsibilities then stick to Western Medicine and all its problems because most people can't even take the full regimen of antibiotics or take their pills. Anyone with a poor level of commitment should stick to your Western Doctor. Native American medicine is almost always collaborative with concommitent spiritual behavior and responsibilities.