History of Latin American Dermatology

History of Dermatology among Argentine indigenous culturesalmost total extermination of many of them was not due so much to the work of the “conquest”but to the disastrous consequences of the epidemics they suffered from the arrivalof the Europeans.Let us recall that the etymology of the word Chaco refers to the multitude of nationspopulating that region.1. GuaraníThese Indians practiced tattooing*, not only as ornament, but for healing purposes forpatients with specific ailments, through incisions in the back and buttocks. When theywere carried out for the relief of fatigue, after strenuous marches, such tattooing weredescribed as “hygienic.”Many tribes practiced this ancestral rite. Pertinent in this respect are the statementsof the anthropologist Rubén Palavecino, who in regard to the Chaco Indians says, “Thetattooing of the face is an extremely widespread custom, which begins at puberty and increaseswith age. The procedure is almost always practiced by the tribe’s older women,who trace a guiding drawing. The puncturing of the skin is carried out with cactus or fishspines, or with needles made from bone, followed by the introduction of coloring matterthrough energetic rubbing.”The male adornment par excellence was the tembetá, exhibiting diverse forms andmaterials, such as lead with incrustations of turquoise or with the wood of the palo borracho(silk floss tree). It signified valor, courage, aggressiveness, and was the distinctivesign of young warriors and hunters.MEDICAL BOTANYThe rich tropical and subtropical phytogeographic reservoir was employed in thehealing of ailments, their application being subordinated to the flora’s magical propertiesor to the theurgic conception of the illness.Copaiba (Copaifera officinalis) (balsam of copaiba): it provides an oleoresin that wasemployed on wounds and ulcerations and later for venereal diseases. It is considered oneof the New World’s most ancient medicines.Zarzaparrilla (Zarzaparrilla smilax) (sarsaparrilla): cooked or in a solution – maceratedin wine – it enjoyed therapeutic prestige in skin ailments, such as scabies and venerealdiseases spread by the Spaniards. It also had sudorific properties.Salvia (sage): applied to the surface of the skin, it served to drive insects away.Mangle (Conocarpus erecta or bucia erecta) (buttonwood): its root, roasted, was usedfor people stung by rays.Carqueja (Yaguareté Caá) (Baccaris chispa) (Carqueja): indicated even today in a tealikebrew to alleviate biliar dyskinesia, it was applied to venereal ulcers and to patientsinfected with leprosy.Anguay, copal or benjuí (Styrax leprosus) (snowbell): a tree with incorruptible and nonrottingwood, employed in the construction of primitive churches. A balsam was extractedfrom it with allegedly healing properties, applied to wounds, ulcerations and bone injuries.Payé sorcerers adopted its aromatic resin to perfume the site of their rituals as if withincense; hence the name iberá payé, a Guaraní expression literally meaning the “sorcerers’tree.”Contrahierba (Dorstenia contrajerva) (torus herb): it was used for lukewarm bathsand as an incense, in the rehabilitation of forms of paralysis. It was employed in the* The word “tattoo” originated in the islands of the Pacific, from the Polynesian Kanaka. Tatahu is derived fromta, drawing, and designates in a general manner the markings and signs made on the body.21