RE: Ajq'iijab

[Guest guest]

 

 

Marco,

 

Thanks for the interesting perspectives and the new term in my vocabulary, Ajq'iijab. I'm not really sure how to pronounce it... Ah-kee-hab?

 

Stephen

 

As part of the colonization-imposition-invasion (now term globalisation) you may be right that Western cosmo vision and the English language becomes "the second language" of Traditional medical systems. However, some "reasons" will probably be due to "safety" and "articulation".

 

Safety an oddity that I have not thought about in this particular manner. Of course safety per say is an gold standard for the practice of any medical system, but only presently it has down on me how this term is used politically to favour a interpretation of Traditional medicine and to impose set believes rather then values (since really any medical system by default must surely be involved in the aspect what is good practice?

 

i.e. Here in Guatemala for some odd reason people talk in terms that the Ajq'iij needs to be "trained" to a certain level in Western medicine although it was not necessary before (as to not make a long e-mail I am not elaborating).

 

Also people speak in terms of articulation that in order for Western medicine to understand Maya medicine "They" the Ajq'iijab (plural) needs to be "trained" to a certain standard in Western medicine. This is really a one sided implementation of such noble and important aspects of safety and articulation; "simply" due to paternalisms and ignoranism and cultural bound syndrome", this by the way is obviously a two way tire but one is never allowed to be expressed honestly in the first place; a aspect that I think is now changing with regard to Chinese medicine.

 

Since most books on Tibetan medicine can comparatively speaking be related to "Mann" style of layout one could also say that as far as Tibetan medical paradigm there probably are as many misunderstandings and distortions about what it is can and does as some people including my self have about Chinese medicine. This due to the fairly humane factor that people are always more keen to feel that they know rather then to try to go through the process of understanding.

 

But what we have learnt from The Chinese medical experience is that language and awareness of above social phenomena one can possibly reduce the time of imagination based on prompting personal gains with disregards both for the medical system in question and by extension for the patients.

 

Ajq'iij is a Maya Kichee word and from what I have gather it is sometime translated as:

 

Guía espiritual Maya - Maya spiritual guide

Maya priest

Maya shaman

Maya medicine man.

 

The word Maya is not a constitute of the term Ajq'iij nor historically and contemporary are all Ajq'iijab' of the male gender, thus at least 50% of the potential and possibly current Ajq'iijab' are not represented in the translated term whilst the source term makes no exclusive distinction.

 

Q'iij is the term for sun day and peculiar as it may sound The Maya languages had no need for the term "time" as an abstract constitute but Q'iij comes the closes to the term time in Kichee.

 

Hence one thing we now know after centuries of repression (now labelled progress in the form of globalisation) and hence an rooted ignorance of the repressed culture that is hard to verbalise, that Aj'qiij involved something to do with "time" and since the term is also denoting someone that practice some form of Maya healing-treatment of(?-we do not exactly know although there have been many studies but few that simply present the words of the Ajq'iijab').

 

This then is a letter of "word of caution" but also a new q'iij; time in the since of something interconnected with you and I and something functional and cyclical; since from the view point of Maya the cycle of "[more] understanding" has began.

 

 

Personally I do not know if that is the case however there probably are untold distortions in most but not all books on Tibetan medicine in a western language.

 

 

Obviously I am not against Ajq'iijab' learning western standard medicine but it should not be done against the pretence of safety and as for articulation between medical paradigms it is a two way dialogue.

 

This letter is not directed at or to Stephen rather that his interesting observation made the impulse to yet again write to the list.

 

By the way I really would like to thank Todd for having the impulse and the qi, Shen1 body-persona to create and maintain CHA it has been a blessing-cheers...

 

 

Marco BerghChinese Herbal Medicine, a voluntary organization of licensed healthcare practitioners, matriculated students and postgraduate academics specializing in Chinese Herbal Medicine, provides a variety of professional services, including board approved online continuing education.