Abstract

MORIEL HERRERA, Francisco  and  FIERRO REYES, Irma Gabriela. Sense of transcendence, belief systems and health of the patient-caregiver binomial in the Sierra Tarahumara, Mexico. Rev. urug. Antropología y Etnografía [online]. 2025, vol.10, n.1, e107.  Epub June 01, 2025. ISSN 2393-7068.  https://doi.org/10.29112/ruae.v10i1.2427.

This research work undertakes an anthropological and theological reflection of an interpretative nature, on the relationship that exists between health models, belief systems, spirituality, religiosity and the sacred -factors that are combined through transcendence- from the sick-caregiver binomial in the context of the Sierra Tarahumara; region located in northern Mexico, where different cultural traditions are amalgamated: indigenous and mestizo. From an ethnographic methodology, and through the use of qualitative techniques such as participant observation, the snowball and the documentation of life stories, the testimonies of a group of chronic patients and their caregivers, who make up the study universe, are compiled. The above, with the aim of portraying the experience of suffering and caring for a chronic disease linked to old age. The results obtained generate a multiplicity of significant facts, which can be synthesized from two findings: 1) the process in which such a combination of social actors is involved is framed in the use of differentiated health care models -the hegemonic and the alternative-, produces pain and social stigma, which proves what is raised by the great specialists in the subject; and 2) both chronically ill and caregivers find a “sense of transcendence” to everything that is experienced, which has a reason to be from constructs, imaginaries and interpretations about the faith that They profess, and that in turn provides them with an open disposition towards what they call: “God’s will”, including the advent of death. Transcendence, then, appears as the category of analysis that goes through all the experiences, enriching the understanding of the symbolic and religious dimensions of the processes of health, disease and care.

Keywords : sick-caregiver; belief system; sense of transcendence; Sierra Tarahumara.

        · abstract in Spanish | Portuguese     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )