Abstract

MARQUEZ, JORGE  and  ESTRADA, VICTORIA. Healer, Quack, Pharmacist, and Dentist. El Indio Rondín and Medical Professionalization in Colombia, 1912-1934. Anu. colomb. hist. soc. cult. [online]. 2018, vol.45, n.1, pp.79-104. ISSN 0120-2456.  https://doi.org/10.15446/achsc.v45n1.67552.

The study of medical practices and the Colombian therapeutic market during the first half of the 20th century led us to discover the case of El Indio Rondín, a healer who practiced in five of the country's departments. Due to his great fame, several chroniclers made a myth out of his life. This article debunks that myth and inserts the case of El Indio Rondín in history through the analysis and critique of archival sources that make possible to progress in understanding the process of medical professionalization in Colombia. We believe that this study should include the important phenomenon of doctors without diplomas or quacks, who used to practice throughout the national territory in times when medical studies at the university were still weak. Rondín is a singular and comprehensive example of such tolerated doctors. He used all the legal, cultural, and commercial means available at the time to successfully carry out both medical and paramedical practices. His case makes allows to demonstrate the ambiguities of academic medicine regarding irregular physicians and their legitimizing strategies, the social and folk uses of the allopathic system, and the convergence of various types of medicine in the therapeutic market.

Keywords : (Author) 20th century; allopathic medicine; folk medicine; professionalization; (Thesaurus) Colombia; traditional medicine.

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