Ese Eja Health Manual

The Ese Eja Bi-Lingual Participatory Health Manual Project

Principal Investigators: Miguel Alexiades and Daniela Peluso

Project dates: 1999-2005
Funding: Earth Environmental Tithing Trust (1999), TReeS/Mathiessen Foundation (2004), PPI/CIFOR (2004), University of Kent Faculty Grant (2004)

The bi-lingual Ese Eja manual is the product of a long-term working relationship between Dr. Miguel Alexiades and Dr. Daniela Peluso with the Ese Eja in Peru and Bolivia. The manual was written and illustrated by a group of Ese Eja from five different communities, as part of a long process facilitated by Dr. Peluso and Dr Alexiades.

The manual consists of three parts. The first part discusses some general aspects of Ese Eja culture and history. Basic aspects of Ese Eja ethnomedicine, including concepts of disease, Ese Eja illness categories and the relationship between illness, ecological and cosmological relations are subsequently discussed, and this is followed by the presentation of 26 of the most common health problems and their treatment using a broad range of widely available Ese Eja medicinals. Plants discussed include both plants recognized by the Ese Eja as having been passed down by their ancestors, and plants more recently incorporated into the their ethnobotanical repertoire.

This project emerges from the critical observation that although culture change is an inevitable process for all cultures, its outcome can vary. As such, Drs. Peluso and Alexiades have been actively engaged in several research initiatives seeking to provide the Ese Eja, a group of lowland Amazonian hunter gatherers and swidden agriculturalists, with tools and options that enable their access and utilization of their own resources, on their own terms and in ways which promote self-empowerment and sustainable development.

The manual, including the process leading to its production, sought to:

1.Secure and re-energize traditional health-care delivery means and resources, encouraging cross-exchange of knowledge between different Ese Eja communities in Peru and Bolivia, as well as between medical systems.

2.Provide highly valued information regarding the use of medicinal plants to treat common illness symptoms, and to do so using materials and a language that can be easily understood and applied. Other valuable tools to promote exchange and re-valuation of knowledge included in this process are workshops and audio-visual materials (see, for example, Alexiades and Lacaze 1996, Lacaze and Alexiades 1995).

3.Assist in ongoing efforts to revitalize Ese Eja language. This is the first published text ever written by the Ese Eja, and the first bi-lingual publication disseminated among the Ese Eja whose goal is not proselytizing religion.

4.Catalyze processes linked to strengthening of endogenous skills and human resources and exchange between indigenous social actors.

5.Provide a mechanism for joint collective action, and thus for social and political integration, countering the fragmenting and atomising effects following their division by an international border and by processes of twentieth century migration and displacement away from their ancestral territory.

The Ese Eja manual was produced in close collaboration with the regional indigenous federation of Madre de Dios, FENAMAD. Different editions were printed for Peru and Bolivia, following the orthographic conventions used in each country. It has been widely disseminated among all households in both countries, serving as a powerful catalyst to generate internal discussion and interest in locally available cultural and material resources.

This project contributes to efforts by Ese Eja to use contemporary means to re-define their culture and position themselves in the broader society in which they are embedded. It also seeks to serve as a model for the more active involvement of indigenous peoples in initiatives pertaining to the documentation and diffusion of indigenous knowledge.

Further Reading:

Alexiades, M., G. HuajoHuajo, R. Mamío, D. Peluso, V. Pesha and G. Tirina. 2003 (Peru edition) 2005 (Bolivian edition). Ejawawejakiji ebiohoneki shemeño Ese Ejaha: Para Conocer nuestros remedios del monte. Puerto Maldonado, Peru: FENAMAD.

Alexiades, M., and D. Lacaze. 1996. FENAMAD’s Program in Traditional Medicine: An Integrated Approach to Health Care in the Peruvian Amazon. In: M. J. Balick, E. Elisabetsky and S. Laird, eds. Medicinal Resources of the Tropical Forest: Biodiversity and Its Importance to Human Health. Columbia University Press, New York. (pdf)

Lacaze, D. and M.N. Alexiades. 1995. “Salud Para Todos”: Plantas medicinales y salúd indígena en el Departamento de Madre de Dios, Peru. Un Manual Práctico. FENAMAD/ Centro de Estudios Rurales Bartolomé de las Casas. Cusco, Perú.