Corpos “naturalmente” doentes de nyokane: relação entre corpo e doença entre um grupo de mães das cidades de Maputo e Matola

Abstract

This research project analyzes the relationship that mothers establish between body and disease, specifically nyokane (disease that attacks children). According to the literature, the disease since the beginning of humanity was explained, showing the dominant paradigms in each historical period. In each explanation, it is perceived although implicitly the idea that man has always established the relationship between body and disease. A common denominator among these authors is the explanation that the human body is born healthy and its illness occurs when there is an imbalance of functions or when the body is invaded by any foreign organism, so for these authors the human body is born healthy and only he becomes ill he is invaded by a foreign organism. Another group of authors from the social area consulted by us defends the idea that the whole being human is born with a disease, the nyokane, a disease that must be treated or combated in the first moments of the child's life. The two positions, "body is born healthy", and "body is born with disease", allow us to understand that man has always been concerned with the issue of health and disease, but loses sight of the holistic interpretation of the relationship that man establishes body and disease. The idea that the human body is born with disease has been retained because it allows us to perceive the relationship that mothers establish between the body and disease and shape a series of actions and relationships against nyokane, a disease considered and perceived as an evil that child is born with it and must be prevented or treated with medicines from plants and leaves and which, if not treated, can cause epilepsy. The analysis is supported by the ethnographic data collected among mothers living in the cities of Maputo and Matola, and among the care providers for the cure of nyokane, the nyangas, nyangarrumes and maziones. The researched group will provide data that allow us to understand the relationship established between the body and disease, and how the idea that the body is born sick is constructed, the mechanisms of prevention, treatment and cure for nyokane, in order to ensure growth and healthy development of the child. (TRADUÇÃO NOSSA)