Healing Like Our Ancestors: The Nahua Tiçitl, Gender, and Settler Colonialism in Central Mexico, 1535-1660

Early colonial Spanish settlers defined, assessed, and admonished Nahua titi蓾h (healing specialists) and ti蓾yotl (healing knowledge) in the process of building a society in Mexico that mirrored Iberia. Nevertheless, Nahua survivance (intergenerational knowledge transfer) has allowed communities to heal like their ancestors through changes and adaptations. Edward Anthony Polanco draws from diverse colonial primary sources, largely in Spanish and Nahuatl (the Nahua ancestral language), to explore how Spanish settlers framed titi蓾h, their knowledge, and their practices within a Western complex. Polanco argues for the usage of Indigenous terms when discussing Indigenous concepts and arms the reader with the Nahuatl words to discuss central Mexican Nahua healing. In particular, this book emphasizes the importance of women as titi蓾h and highlights their work as creators and keepers of knowledge. These vital Nahua perspectives of healing--and how they differed from the settler narrative--will guide community members as well as scholars and students of the history of science, Latin America, and Indigenous studies.