“Por mi rastro, por mi sombra y por mi montaña”. El curanderismo en la costa norte de Perú

Abstract

On the northern coast of Peru there is a cultural phenomenon that enjoys great national and international prestige. It is a shamanic tradition with a long historical trajectory that can be corroborated by the archaeological remains found in the semi-desert lands of the department of Lambayeque. Likewise, during colonial times, the testimonies of great healers were recorded in viceroyalty documentation through the persecution of idolatries, where the types of healers that existed, the use of their ritual objects for healing, the entities with which they made agreements and dialogued, as well as the price they charged, among other elements, are mentioned. In spite of their persecution, nowadays the masters have a great presence and their forms of initiation and work are as valid as in colonial times, since they have been able to adapt very well to the current world system. That is why, in this work, under an ethnohistorical approach, we address what it means to be a healer in northern Peru at the dawn of the 21st century.