AZTEC MEDICINE: HISTORY, GOD, PLANTS, DISEASES - HISTORY - 2024

The Aztec medicine was a practice of native curative treatments of Mexica indigenous society, characterized by the use of herbal medicines, surgeries and influence of supernatural factors.

The Aztec Empire, which by the 14th century controlled much of central Mesoamerica, had advanced medical knowledge that could be compared to the European healing practices of the time.

Aztec doctors practicing their trade.

Source: culturacentro.gob.mx

The Aztecs practiced complex surgical interventions and offered treatments for many of the ailments of the human body, even if the cause came, according to their beliefs, from a vengeful god or an earthly accident.

History of Aztec medicine

The Aztecs established their empire after a series of alliances with various peoples and in 1325 they settled in the Valley of Mexico, where they founded the city of Tenochtitlán, on which current Mexico City is built.

The Mexica were a very advanced people, with large buildings, wide streets, aqueducts, a class society and a medical system according to this lifestyle.

Aztec medicine was transmitted orally from father to son, and was practiced by both men and women. It was based on empirical knowledge, since the healers acted according to the previous experiences obtained.

Origin of diseases

The Aztecs worshiped an infinity of gods with whom they maintained a complex relationship. Just as they cried out for their intervention, they also felt immense fear for some of these deities, causing their salvation and doom at the same time.

For this reason, it was common for the cause of diseases and the practice of medicine to pass between reality and magic, which led the Aztecs to divide the origin of their affections into two types: divine and natural.

Magical or divine causes originated when the person presented an imbalance caused by supernatural beings, a witch doctor or by the reprimand of a punishing god.

At the same time, natural conditions were those caused by wounds, trauma, snake bites or accidents in general.

Characteristics of Aztec medicine

The practice of Aztec medicine was so developed that it had a diverse variety of specialists, similar to their modern peers.

Historians claim that among the physicians there were surgeons, internists, orthopedists, and apothecaries. In fact, there is talk of at least 40 medical specialties. These indigenous doctors performed punctures, bleeds, stitches, amputations, and even brain surgeries.

Healers had to have extensive knowledge of local herbalism in order to treat their patients; in addition to understanding the language of the nahuallatolli (spirits), seeing the past, the future, knowing the supernatural world and its interaction with that of the living.

Aztec medicine had certain interesting peculiarities such as the use of petals to encapsulate some medicines and swallow them more easily, in the best style of modern pills.

The patients also received anesthesia and were operated on with a knife equivalent to a scalpel, made of obsidian

The Aztecs placed great importance on hygiene and frequent bathing. Reports from Spanish explorers indicate that the streets of Tenochtitlán were clean all the time. It is not known with certainty if this could be to honor the gods or because they had already understood the link between cleanliness and health, several centuries before their European peers.

Spanish domain

The Aztec Empire was subjugated after the Spanish conquest in 1521 and with it the practice of its traditional medicine. However, herbal knowledge was highly valued by the conquerors.

In 1570, King Felipe II of Spain sent his personal doctor Francisco Hernández to Mexico, who dedicated seven years to the study of native plants of Mexico to bring his knowledge back to Europe.

Aztec god of medicine

The Aztec god of medicine was called Ixtliton, which could be translated in Nahuatl language as "black-faced."

This was not an invisible god, since unlike the other deities, his image was embodied by a priest who painted his face black and wore his clothing.

This consisted of a shield with the representation of the god of the sun and war, Huitzilopochtli; a cane with a heart-shaped handle, a crystal necklace, and a flint crest.

The priest received his worshipers in a wooden temple in which they exposed to the public jars of water painted black, whose contents were given to drink to sick children for their healing.

The children, if their health allowed them, danced for the god in search of a cure and usually the priest analyzed the reflection of the image of the infant in the black waters to study the state of his soul.

Aztec god of medicine

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Plants and diseases they treat

As is common in medical practices from indigenous cultures, the use of herbs is essential and the Aztecs were no exception.

Here are some of the plants used by Aztec medicine:

- Achiote: with this plant they fought headaches, inflammation of the tonsils, sunstroke, mouth abrasions, jaundice and asthma.

- Anacahuite: The fruits and pieces of this bush were used to alleviate coughs and bronchial inflammations, since it had ample aphrodisiac, digestive and diuretic properties.

- Melissa: the infusion of this plant stimulated digestion, increased heart energy, improved blood circulation, calmed the nervous system and vertigo, in addition to rheumatic pain.

- Chayote: the leaves of this tree were used against arteriosclerosis and kidney stones.

- Manita flower: this flower was boiled to treat heart disease and as an anxiolytic.

Stan Shebs hand flower

Source: Wikimedia Commons

- Avocado: this fruit had multiple benefits in fighting menstrual cramps, cough, dandruff, dysentery, peritonitis, gout and even to eliminate lice.

- Guayabo: its leaves were used to control diarrhea, hair toning and the expulsion of intestinal parasites.

- Ahuehuete: the leaves of this tree were used to treat varicose veins and hemorrhoids, as a tonic for the heart and congestions in the lungs, kidneys and liver.

- Maguey: the leaves of this plant were used to treat syphilis, gonorrhea, accelerate wound healing, as an antiseptic for the stomach and intestines and as a laxative.

- Nopal: the leaves of this tree helped to expel intestinal parasites, strengthen the lungs, treat diabetes and increase breast milk.

A book to remember

Aztec medicine has a book that collects the virtue of the plants used during medical practice as a recipe book.

It is the Libellus de medicinalibus Indorum Herbis (Small book of the medicinal herbs of the Indians) that dates from 1552 and is considered a unique record and the oldest written on this subject.

At present it is simply known as the De la Cruz-Badiano codex, since it was dictated in the Nahuatl language by the elderly indigenous doctor, Martín de la Cruz, with the participation of Juan Badiano, an indigenous native of Xochimilco, who transcribed the work.

The codex was lost for 350 years until it was found in 1929 in the Vatican Library, which returned it to Mexico in 1990. Today it is housed in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City as a living legacy of Aztec medical practice.

Page from the De la Cruz-Badiano codex

Source: Wikimedia Commons

References

1. Original towns. (2019). Ixtitlon. Taken from pueblosoriginario.com
2. Fund of Economic Culture. (2000). History of pediatrics in Mexico. Ixtitlon. God of the Aztec pantheon who cured the pre-Hispanic childhood of Mexico. Taken from medigraphic.com
3. Aztec culture. (2019). Ancient Aztec medicine. Taken from cultura-azteca.com
4. Juvenal Gutiérrez Moctezuma and Mónica Gutiérrez Cadena. (2009). History of medicine. Azteca Medical Organization and its treatments, with emphasis on epilepsy. Taken from medigraphic.com
5. Bernard Ortiz de Montellano. (2019). Aztec medicinal magic. Taken from arqueologiamexicana.mx