Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol.4, No.3 Publication Date: Feb. 25, 2017 DoI:10.14738/assrj.43.2766 Garcia-Vázquez, A. I. (2017) .Indigenous Medical Tradition and Biomedical Tradition: A Historical Relation of Hegemony. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 4(3) 201-214 Copyright © Society for Science and Education, United Kingdom 201 Indigenous Medical Tradition and Biomedical Tradition: A Historical Relation of Hegemony Arlene Iskra García Vázquez Researcher of Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores Unidad León Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Blvd.UNAM 2011, Predio El Saucillo y El Potrero, Comunidad de los Tepetates León, Gto. C.P.37684 ABSTRACT The indigenous medical tradition is a system of knowledge, practices and beliefs about health-illness process, used by many social groups in Mexico, which has prevailed in a context marked by the epistemic, social and political hegemony of the biomedical tradition, a situation that has shaped its historical development, has impeded its recognition and appraisal as an effective and legitimate way to attend the health-illness process, and has been excluded from the official medicine. The above is the result of a historical process of long duration, which has its origins in the colonial era and was favored by the epistemic supremacy of science. This work analyzes the established relations, during the Spanish colonial era, between the indigenous and the Western medical traditions, to understand how that led to epistemic, social, political and institutional exclusion of the indigenous medical tradition. The historical stages of this study were established to identify the major events in the hegemony relationships among both traditions, which were analyzed based on the concepts of hegemony and tradition. The conclusion is that the hegemony relationships between the biomedical tradition and the indigenous medical tradition are the result of a historical and dynamic process of selection, reinterpretation and redefinition of cultural elements of the indigenous medical tradition, which involved the imposition of modern western culture’s concept of the world and of the epistemic criteria of science, as well as the establishment of institutions responsible of the control and regulation of the indigenous medical practice. Keywords: Indigenous medical tradition, Biomedical tradition, Hegemony, New Spain INTRODUCTION Since ancient times human beings have developed knowledge, practices, and explanations about health and disease, which have been systematized and structured in medical systems. These medical systems are part of broader cultural traditions whose ontological and epistemological principles establish the context in which that knowledge, practices and explanations are understandable and meaningful (Osorio, 2001; Campos, 2000). In Mexico many medical traditions coexist; two of them are the biomedical tradition and the indigenous medical tradition. The first one is the expression of scientific and technological advances and was developed within the framework of modern Western culture, a culture established on the exaltation of reason as the basis of all knowledge and the domain of nature as well as the actions and human behaviors, including social, economic and political organization. The second tradition was configured from the worldview of the indigenous people that existed before the Spanish conquest, the Aztecs, Nahuas, and Mayans. What today is known as the