History of Latin American Dermatology

Notes on the History of Dermatology in Paraguayraces merged to maintain the virtues of each lineage, which today constitute the constantreflection of a brilliant period of our ancestors. Moisés S. Bertoni, a Swiss sage who livedand worked in Paraguay, in his book The Guaraní Civilization, quotes Carlos CuervoMárquez to convey a biographical sketch of the race:The indomitable courage, the energy and the tenacity with which they defended theirliberty and independence; the desperate war to the death with which they tried to resistthe European invasion, when they realized that they were there as conquerors tostrip them of their properties, take them from their homes, and reduce them to theharshest slavery; the ferocity with which their retaliations responded to the relentlesscruelty and unprecedented treachery of the Europeans, soon made the name“Carib” a synonym of courageous, blood-thirsty, and cruel, and caused the individualsof this race to be regarded as wild beasts, whose destruction was permitted andwhose slavery was decreed.The determination and the diverse strategies used by each people were the result ofthe realities of the moment, which it was necessary to know how to handle in order topreserve the threatened race, with dignity. The most renowned modern expert on whatwas the most civilized race in the western part of the Americas did not exaggerate whenhe stated that the Guaraní “were one of the greatest and most noteworthy people onearth” (General Couto de Magalhaes, O Selvagem, quoted by Bertoni).The extraordinary longevity of the Guaraní was a result of the extreme care in theirhygienic practices. The average life span of our Karaive was 150 years or more. Thecleanliness of the body was a generalized custom; they bathed in the rivers regardless ofhow cold it was. The Chiriguano cleaned their heads with ground seeds of the ñandihra.They also took great care of their nails and not least of their feet. No Guaraní groupwalked about totally naked; but in contrast, relative nakedness was quite generalized.The subject of clothing leads us to comment on urucuization; this daily operation wasmandatory among the Karaive and the Guaraní of the north and part of the northeast,their direct descendants. The urukú or bixa orellana is a common geotropic tree, which,under cultivation by the Indians, had reached as far as the hilly regions; it produces a coloringmaterial that is formed around the seeds. In the Antilles and all across the north ofthe continent it is used like saffron in many foods. Each morning, after the first bath andbefore drying by the fireside, every male Karaive would have his body rubbed down withan ointment made of this substance, mixed with oil, generally of palm. As a result thewhole body, including the face, presented a special pale red dye, quite shiny, strange butnot unpleasant to sight or the touch, since every spot on the skin or scar would be erasedand the skin became finely glazed, as well as softer and stronger. This process would providethem a defense against the ill effects of rain, sunburn, the cold on some nights, andlastly against insect bites. Urucuización also had to prevent any excessive sweating thatcould cause weakness and, with the daily renewal, by means of an energetic wash, hadto remove all impurities from the skin. Such repeated oily friction also had to stop senilehardening, both the superficial and venous and the internal, as a consequence of the exercisesthat permitted them a suppleness of the body well into an extraordinary age.From one extreme to the other of the Karaive-Guaraní domain, scarification constituteda general and characteristic practice. It was so at all times, and has been conservedat least partially in all the current free entities. It is necessary to keep in mind that it hadmany purposes, with various procedures and a special ritual for each of the desired ends.These were at least six: three curative, two mystical, and one of an hygienic order to remedyexcessive fatigue. Scarification was achieved by means of an akutí tooth, flint, or thesides of tacuarembó trees or sharp leaves, palm tree needles, fish bones or the like, in accordancewith the regions. Incisions were divided according to their depth into tugwihkih289