The role of illness in Central American Indian and Ladino society

Illness, physical and mental, must be defined and dealt with by every viable socio-cultural system. Related to this cultural task is that of role definition, which is also the duty of every socio-cultural system. In addition to the definition of cultural roles and illness, each system must prove itself flexible by providing means for anomalous individuals or cultural deviants to be integrated or re-integrated into statuses defined according to cultural norms. There are a number of ways in which this might be accomplished effectively. A society can create niches, or culturally defined and sanctioned roles, to be filled permanently by a limited number of such individuals. Also, a socio-cultural system can define illness and provide cures such that individuals are then allowed to temporarily deviate from the established cultural norms, generally continuing all the while to receive a degree of group support, and be assured ultimately of re-integration into the group's normal pattern of role interaction