Aboriginal trephining in Bolivia / [Adolph Francis Alphonse Bandelier].

  • Adolph Francis Alphonse Bandelier
Date:
[1904]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Aboriginal trephining in Bolivia / [Adolph Francis Alphonse Bandelier]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Those having faith in sorcerers are induced to crime, since, as they believe in the supernatural power of witchcraft, they rely on it for protection, hence regard crime with impunity. We found no trace of trephining among the Indians at the present time for any but external injuries, but it does not follow that they use it only for the purpose of removing splinters of bone or for relieving pressure on the brain. Among the trephined crania which we disinterred from the burial places there are some that do not show any indication of lesion; there are also specimens that exhibit two to four perforations, some of them quite small. The theory has been advanced that trephining was a ceremonial operation, and it has even been suggested that it was performed as a punishment for crime. I believe the latter interpretation to be scarcely worthy of serious attention ; but the hypothesis that it contained a religious element is not to be discarded entirely, for in cases where a tre- phined skull exhibits no lesion whatever, the operation was doubt- less performed for other than an external cause. The Indian attrib- utes every disease to spiritual influence, from the moment it resists ordinary remedies, and even in cases in which the cause is absolutely unquestioned he suspects the interference of higher powers. This fact came forcibly to our notice on one occasion while on Titicaca island, when my wife hurt herself against a stone. The shaman whom I had taken care to assign as her assistant, so that she might observe him and glean such information as might be possible, told her to eat a small piece of the stone, lest it injure her , again. Indians, like other mortals, suffer from pain in the head; when the pain becomes persistent, suspicion of evil powers dwelling within the cranium, or of some evil substance smuggled inside of it through sorcery, naturally follows. In such cases, after all other charms have proved ineffectual, the final resort is to perforate the skull and let the evil out. This is a religious act, and trephining in such cases is accompanied by ceremonies, which are as yet unknown to us. There is abundant evidence that the existence of foreign bodies in our organism is believed by the Bolivian Indians to be the cause of many diseases, and the callahuayas or peddling shamans of Curva, near Charassani, are known to make a lucrative industry of the trick of ‘‘extracting”’ these fancied germs of disease. Suck-
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