SOME SYMBOLIC DIMENSIONS OF ANDEAN MATERIA MEDICA Kathryn S. Oths Department of Anthropology The University of Alabama ABSTRACT Therapeutic healing symbols should be recognized as being embedded in and arising from a cultural context, which both specialists and nonspecialists then draw upon in treating the sick. The symbolic aspects of material features of medical systems have been discussed in reference to biomedicine, but little discussion has been devoted to these symbolic dimensions of traditional medical systems. Ethnographic data from an Andean hamlet in Northern Peru provides evidence that the symbolic content of remedies is rooted in the collective experience of the people and can be shared across all types of healing encounters. The three symbolic qualities of materia medica identified are blackness, topicality and liquidity, [index words: symbolic healing, ethnomedicine, medical anthropology, Peru, Andes) Much anthropological attention has been accorded the symbolic aspects of healing (Frank 1961; Moerman 1979; Dow 1986). The symbolic con- tent of healing therapies is seen as contributing, often substantially, to the efficacy of clinical inter- ventions alongside other mechanical and phar- macological methods utilized. Types of healing symbols, as Dow (1986) has recently discussed, range from narrated (see Levi-Strauss 1967) and dramatized myths (casting out demons, finding souls, etc.; see Murphy 1964; Rubel 1964; Glass-Cof- fin 1991), to trance states (see Lee 1967), to psychological processes (such as Dow's example of the healer presenting the patient with a paradox). Dow also recognizes medicine itself as representing one type of healing symbol derived from the generalized symbolic media, that is, the general cul- tural milieu. ("Based on the myth that medicines are effective, a doctor might give a patient a placebo", 1986:64). In general, though, less attention has been granted the symbolic aspects of the material fea- tures of medical traditions. My interest here is in the realization of symbols in objects (not words or events) of culturally agreed upon medicinal value, and in how these objects encode culturally salient in- formation. A few studies have looked at the symbolic content of traditional materia medica, such as the work of Finkler (1985), which dwells on the cultural salience of ritual cleansing with branches and water in Spiritualist healer ministrations, and that of Turner (1975), in his detailed descriptions of Ndem- bu healing. These few examples notwithstanding, the symbolic properties of traditional medicines such as herbs, baths and lotions have largely es- caped the attention of social scientists. Paradoxically, relative to traditional therapies the materia medica of biomedicine has been more widely treated in terms of its symbolic dimensions. The white coat of the physician has been shown to communicate multiple symbolic meanings (Blumhagen 1979). Katz (1981) has sig- naled the symbolic efficacy of the biomedical surgeon's implements. Hahn and Kleinman (1983) discuss the effect of the placebo, a representation of biomedicine's power to alter disease and health states. Elsewhere, I have referred to the symbolism of the chiropractor's medical implements (Oths in press). The symbolic potency of biomedical inter- ventions exported to the third world has long been noted, viz. the notorious preference for injections over oral medicine. In all the above cited studies, both traditional and biomedical, the symbols of heal- ing are viewed as a part of the domain of the healer. These therapeutic symbols are imbued with power, it would seem, in so much as they are the insignia of the healer's office. Where does the potency of therapeutic acts lie? Certainly in part, in the persona of the healer. Yet, part of the symbolic efficacy of the materia medica of any healing tradition exists independent of and apart from the particular healer employing it. The materia medica of a healing tradition is material culture that symbolically unites disparate domains of everyday lived experience, with the power inherent in snared cultural meaning brought to bear on one of the most vital arenas of actual everyday living-the experience and alleviation of pain and suffering. While perhaps achieving their greatest potency in the hands of a healer because of the addi- tional symbolic import the social role of healer provides, the symbols of healing do not necessarily originate in the healer. They are often merely col-