Indian 'humor' in medical knowledge during the 16th and 17th centuries

Abstract

During the first Modern Era (15th-17th c.), bodily health and expressions of physiognomy were explained under the doctrine of humors. This doctrine -based on Corpus Hipocraticum-established a close relation between humors (blood, yellow bile, phlegm, and black bile), qualities (dry, moist, warm, and cold) and the elements (water, air, earth, and fire). One of these humors -black bile-, commonly a hallmark of the melancholic temperament, was associated to the complexion and nature of American Indians. This accusation was legitimized by the empirical examination of the physiognomy of a subject that was melancholic, sad and pusillanimous. In this article, we describe, based on the analysis of colonial texts (16th-17th c.), how the essential premises of the humor theory were transferred to the New World and in particular and how the Indian complexion was defined through the examination of subjects plagued by black humor and phlegm. With this, we determine the way these individuals -referred as 'Indians'- were inscribed in medical knowledge, during the global spread of the Hippocratic-Galenic postulates.