Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Aztec

  • The wizards who saved lives

    Ceres OteroMexico City, Mexico Of the various peoples who inhabited prehispanic Mexico, the Aztecs were the most medically advanced.1 According to their mythological beliefs, divine beings were to be venerated for giving life to humans and for creating on Earth a place where they could fully develop and live in balance with other species.2 Because…

  • Control of blood

    E.C. SparyUnited Kingdom Blood, that vivid liquid within our bodies, has an attraction for human cultures that is apparent from at least the time of the Maya civilization. If many in the West know of chocolate’s origins in pre-Columbian practices, few are aware that the original drink was composed to resemble fresh blood: liquid, nourishing,…

  • Cranium: the symbolic powers of the skull

    F. Gonzalez-Crussi Chicago, Illinois, USA   It Was a Man and a Pot. Georgia O’Keeffe. 1942. Crocker Art Museum Of all bodily parts, the head has traditionally enjoyed the greatest prestige. The Platonic Timaeus tells us that secondary gods (themselves created by the Demiurge) copied the round form of the universe to make the head,…

  • The story of chocolate

    Merve BerberAnkara, Turkey Chocolatl, meaning “bitter water,” was the earliest form of chocolate. It was a beverage that contained the seed of the cocoa tree (Theobroma cacao) and was consumed by the pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations of the Olmec, Mayan, and Aztec during sacrificial rituals to the gods and for medicinal use.1 The bitter seed kernels…