Miguel Perdomo Neira: healing, culture, and power in the nineteenth-century Andes

Inlate April, 1872, the curandero (healer) Miguel Perdomo Neira arrived in Bogotá amid widespread rumors that he had come to heal the terminaIly ill, or lead conservatives in rebellion. The lay healer had traveled from town to town for the previous six years, performing operations and cures that sor...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: David Sollew
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidad Nacional de Colombia 1997-01-01
Series:Anuario Colombiano de Historia Social y de la Cultura
Subjects:
Online Access:https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/achsc/article/view/16550
Description
Summary:Inlate April, 1872, the curandero (healer) Miguel Perdomo Neira arrived in Bogotá amid widespread rumors that he had come to heal the terminaIly ill, or lead conservatives in rebellion. The lay healer had traveled from town to town for the previous six years, performing operations and cures that sorne viewed as miraculous. Professional physicians on the faculty ofthe Universidad Nacional received him with so much hostility as to spark a minor riot. In this event, broad segments of the people fought medical students and parts of the official political community. At first, the social conflict evident in this event seemed to locate the uorest within the norms of a turbulent period of Colombian history.
ISSN:0120-2456
2256-5647