Discourse, daño, and healing in north coastal Peru

This paper argues that discourse is culturally recognized as powerful and dangerous, significantly informing both the illness experience known as daño (magical aggression) and its traditional cure in North-coastal Peru. Words are viewed as a type of symbolic currency which negotiate and "transact" identity in an economic, social, and psychological environment in which self-esteem is generally viewed as a scarce commodity and tied to the opinions of others. In the case presented, gossip is a verbal mode of daño that is perceived as a threat to the victim's constructed identity: the physical and emotional symptoms of daño directly relate to the anxiety about what people will say (que dirán). I examine the symbolism of the mesa or traditional healing ceremony in terms of this "economy" of discourse to illustrate how the patient's personal experience is linked to a culturally powerful metaphor and then transformed in order to effect the cure.