Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Mesoamerica

  • 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…