A two-way journey: the circulation of botanical medicinal knowledge between the Mapuche people and Spaniards in the Kingdom of Chile, 17th-18th centuries

Abstract

The appropriation of American native people’s botanical knowledge by Hispanic imperial science is a widely known and studied phenomenon, especially as concerns the use and consumption of medicinal plants. The Compañía de Jesús played a prominent role: the Jesuits spread this knowledge to different provinces within the Empire and outside of Europe. Less studied is the

way in which the same knowledge was transmitted amongst other indigenous peoples and  subaltern sectors across Spanish America, as occurred, for instance, with Juan de Esteyneffer’s Florilegio Medicinal, influential amongst the popular classes in New Spain.

We can situate in this same tradition the example of the medical aid the Chilean colonial authorities provided to the Mapuche people during a smallpox epidemic in 1791, which successively affected populations at both sides of the frontier. In this instance, the Spaniards advised natives about the traditional use of medicinal herbs, from knowledge appropriated during the 17th century that the Jesuit missionaries had learned from the Indians themselves. The Spanish contribution shows the return of practices that had their origin from the people and territory of Araucanía, but that circulated through and were influenced by popular hispano-criollo sectors.

This case, reconstructed through different documental and bibliographic sources, illustrates the circulation of medical knowledge through ethnic and social frontiers, moved by the common search of curative efficacy and the exploitation of local botanic resources.