In this evolving world with its accelerated transformations, the indigenous
traditional medical systems in Colombia are currently facing situations of
extreme change as a result of outside influences such as beliefs and attitudes
brought in by migrants, colonists and others who have integrated into these
pueblos. They have brought with them their own conceptions of the environ-
ment and world, and amalgamated their diverse religious beliefs with those
of the native groups. Traditionally, the elders are responsible for transmitting
ancestral knowledge to their younger generations, but the Colombian State
education system, contrary to that of the indigenous groups, separates the
children from their elders. This has resulted in the present generation of
indigenous children following a school curriculum with no allowance for a
smooth transition between one system and the other.^1 The modern reality is
that the ethnic groups remain trapped in two different worlds, without being
able to decide to which of these realities they belong. Similarly, there is an
enormous gap between the traditional medicine practised widely in
Colombia, and that of western medicine. This gap was highlighted in a recent
study undertaken by Ceuterick et al.^2 who investigated traditional medical
care used by a diverse migrant Colombian population in London. These
researchers looked at the process of adaptation to urban medicine while
retaining native traditional medicine.

4

Traditional medicine used by

ethnic groups in the

Colombian Amazon forest,

South America

Blanca Margarita Vargas de Corredor and

Ann Mitchell (Simpson)