Illness and health care policies: seeking recognition of the indigenous worldview during COVID-19

Abstract

In Mexico, indigenous peoples are the most disadvantaged social sectors, which has become more evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the government efforts to provide medical care, including vaccination, disinformation about the context, the problems, and the indigenous peoples' worldview prevails. In this paper, we present a qualitative analysis of ethnographic and bibliographic information based on fieldwork in 2021, which contrasts with the statistics from State agencies such as the Ministry of Health. We present the problems related to the scarce information and discernment of the indigenous worldview and Modus vivendi, as well as their perspective of the disease. We focus on Chiapas State, in the Mexican southeast, based on the examples of some Chuj, Q'anjob'al, and Tojolab'al communities. We point out proposals to face these changes, including the need to carry out an investigation and activity in situ to counteract the tendency to reinterpret, represent and generalize the indigenous cultural characteristics, which affect the design of health policies.