The Reproductive Cycle of Ecuadorian Rain Forest Women

Abstract

their needs. At the same time technological, cultural and economic dependence dictates that Third World countries frequently adopt policies developed in advanced capitalist economies, regardless of their relevance to, impact on or acceptability for the population on whom they are imposed. Ecuador, in the Andean region of South America, is no exception, par? ticularly in the field of health. Health models are imported from North America and perceived as appropriate for the Ecuadorian population. Needless to say they meet with very little success, especially in those remote rural areas where different indigenous groups still practice their own traditional systems of medicine. These very systems are treated a priori with scorn and disdain by professional medical circles, even when little is known about them. Indeed many policy makers have only received one compulsory year of training in rural areas. Modern obstetric practices, in particular, have made little attempt to consider the needs of indigenous groups throughout the country. Little is known in official sectors about traditional obstetrical practices yet they are strongly criticized. This paper is concerned with one aspect of the traditional medicine system, the obstetrical practices surrounding the various stages ofthe reproductive cycle as practiced by the Canelos Quichua women living in agricultural communities along the Rio Bobonaza in the eastern province of Pastaza, a tropical rain forest area adjoining the border with Peru,1 In describing the manner in which these practices are not only accepted by the community, but wholly integrated into the lives of its members, the purpose is to show policy makers, who often categorically discard traditional obstetrical practices as harmful, the value of practices such as these. For only when recognition of indigenous practices occurs, and rural community health services are designed in a more appropriate manner to meet the needs of indigenous populations, will local women no longer refuse to use them.