Folk Medicine Among Urban Mexican Americans: Cultural Persistence, Change, and Displacement

Abstract

Two large-scale surveys and in-depth interviews with 24 Mexican Americans in three Southern California towns indicate that folk medicine is a persistent but ancillary health care system. Most Mexican Americans know something about folk medicine, but fewer maintain strong belief in it and only a small number of Mexican Americans consult folk healers. Scientific medicine is the primary health/mental health system, having replaced in large part the folk medical system. Folk medicine endures as an alternative, however, primarily in the treatment of health problems that are judged minor and require little extrafamilial attention or that are judged severe and persist despite professional scientific health care. There is also evidence that folk medical terms and treatments have changed and become integrated with scientific medicine in the minds of many Mexican Americans. The findings contrast with research in south Texas and in rural areas where folk medicine appears to be more significant for the general Mexican American population.