Criollos from the “Chaco Húmedo Formoseño”: Some Aspects of Their Ethnomedicine

Field trips that took place from 2014 to 2019 in the Argentinean province of Formosa resulted in abundant and valuable ethnomedical and ethnobotanical information. People involved in this study are 50 local informants settled in rural spaces, peri-urban colonies, villages, and cities belonging to the 5 departments of the eastern region of this province. Different ethnographic methods were employed to perform this research, mainly the participant observation and semi-structured surveys, among others. For result analysis, Laplantine’s etiological-therapeutic model was used. This theoretical approach is useful for establishing disease organization according to etiology and therapeutics. The most relevant results include the documentation of 69 pathologies, ailments, and disorders along with many symptoms/signs such as diarrhea, vomits, and colics, among others. Through Criollo medical practice and specific vocabulary, different etiological conceptions have been identified. Some concepts such as the hot-cold system are currently among the Criollos from the Chaco Húmedo Formoseño, in a similar fashion to other Criollo societies in the Mesoamerican region.