Blood is hotter than water: Popular use of hot and cold in Kel Tamasheq illness management

Abstract

Ethnographic data on Malian Kel Tamasheq use of hot-cold classification in illness management within the household show that, although hot and cold vocabulary is known by most people, the concepts of opposition and balance are only one several approaches to treating illness and are rarely used in practice. This differs from the importance ascribed to hot and cold by Tamasheq traditional healer specialists as cited in the literature. The logic of the classification is based on symptoms rather than foods, and is associated with the presence or absence of blood or water. Many people are able to reproduce this symptomatic logic without being able to articulate its details. Because of their more frequent contact with blood through menstruation and childbirth, women are more susceptible to cold symptoms which are most frequently and clearly articulated in relation to gynaecological illnesses. Knowledge and understanding of the classification varies by social class, with those groups more recently assimilated into the Tamasheq population less likely to subscribe to this interpretation of illness. The influence of data collection methodology to the apparent importance of hot and cold as an explanatory system is also discussed.