Signs of the Time: Kallawaya Medical Expertise and Social Reproduction in 21st Century Bolivia by Mollie Callahan A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Anthropology) in the University of Michigan 2011 Doctoral Committee: Professor Judith T. Irvine, Chair Professor Bruce Mannheim Associate Professor Barbra A. Meek Associate Professor Javier C. Sanjines Dedicada a la comunidad de Curva (en su totalidad) y mis primeros amores, Jorge y Luka. ii Acknowledgements There are many people without whom this dissertation would have never been conceived, let alone completed. I am indebted first and foremost to my mother, Lynda Lange, for bringing me into this world and imparting her passion for reading, politics, and people well before she managed to complete her bachelor’s degree and then masters late into my own graduate studies. She has for as long as I can remember wished for me to achieve all that I could imagine and more, despite the limitations she faced in pursuing her own professional aspirations early in her adult life. Out of self-less love, and perhaps the hope of also living vicariously through my own adventures, she has persistently encouraged me to follow my heart even when it has delivered me into harms way and far from her protective embrace. I am eternally grateful for the freedom she has given me to pursue my dreams far from home and without judgment. Her encouragement and excitement about my own process of scholarly discovery have sustained me throughout the research and writing of this dissertation. She has also listened with a critical ear to innumerable reiterations of certain passages, always sharing my joy in bringing the characters and places in this story alive. I am equally grateful for the support I have received from the rest of my extended family, including my sister (Sarah Gross), brother (Mitch Gross), and two step-fathers (Wayne Gross and Gregory Lange). They too have listened to and read drafts of chapters in progress, offering feedback that has, hopefully, helped me to keep my story accessible and relevant to a non-specialist audience. My mother, step-father Gregory, and sister also managed to visit me in the field and share my experience first-hand, for which I will always be grateful. My husband, Jorge Gallé, and our son, Luka Gallé-Callahan, endured the trials and tribulations of fieldwork full-time, which was no small feat, and the more grueling task of living with me while I was writing-up. No matter how much I love my work, they will always be my first loves. I will be forever grateful for their support in all that I am and pursue within and beyond the walls of the academy. But, I am especially grateful for their patience and encouragement during this particular journey and the individual sacrifices they have made on my behalf along the way. My work would be half as personally meaningful if I didn’t have them to share it with. Their presence in my life brings me strength and inspiration, a desire to be my best and make the world a better place. I couldn’t ask for more from either of them. I also owe immense thanks to my committee members, whose commitment to my work and me has never wavered. The support of Judith Irvine and Bruce Mannheim deserve special mention. Their scholarship has been a constant source of inspiration throughout my graduate career and their feedback on everything leading up to the finished dissertation, as well as problems in the field have been invaluable. I am especially grateful to Bruce for turning me onto the Kallawaya literature early in my graduate studies and for sharing his contagious love of Quechua and the Andes, which iii have been the source of many insightful conversations over the years. Judy’s influence has been equally immeasurable. Her graduate seminars opened my eyes to the social and material world of language and her own work has been particularly illuminating in terms of the insights I have developed in this dissertation. I am also thankful for her pragmatic approach to getting things done, especially towards the end of this process when my energy was waning. My gratitude for her dedication, decisive input, and editorial assistance in the final push to bring this project to a close are beyond words. I have especially fond memories of the many dual advising sessions I shared with Judy and Bruce and feel fortunate to have worked with them both so closely. I am also grateful to Barbra Meek and Javier Sanjines who, despite their late addition to my committee, have always been tremendously gracious with their time and feedback. Their influence has seeped into the pages of this dissertation, as well. I wish also to acknowledge the support, insight, and friendship of other colleagues who in different capacities and at different phases in this process have been invested in my research and professional development. Sabina MacCormack (history), Richard Ford (anthropology/biology), Larry Hirschfeld (anthropology/psychology), Leslie Milroy (linguistics), Susan Gelman (psychology), and Henry Wellman (psychology) are among those faculty members who have left lasting impressions upon me and, therefore, contributed importantly to the interdisciplinary perspective I bring to my research. I am also grateful for the collective support and substantive feedback I have received through my participation in several interdisciplinary campus groups, including the Círculo Micaela Bastidas Phuyuqhawa—Andean Scholars Group, Linguistic Laboratory, Semiotics Working Group, and the Culture and Cognition Program. Beyond the faculty and student participants in these groups, I owe thanks to my writing partners, Kairos Marquart and Karen Faulk, whose support and comments in the earliest, ugliest, and most frustrating stages of writing were critical in helping me tease out core arguments and give shape to the story line of the dissertation, although they have been there to offer support and advice from the beginning through the end. As fellow parents and scholars of Latin America, the collegial relationship I share with these women extends far beyond writing. Later, my writing benefited, as well, from the intellectual engagement and extensive feedback of fellows in the Global Ethnic Literature Seminar (Fall 2007) and Mellon Dissertation Seminar (Summer 2008). I am also grateful for the circle of old friends that surrounded me when I returned to Ann Arbor and with whom I shared the highs and lows of fieldwork and the writing process, both on and off campus. They include, in addition to the members of my writing group: Eva Dubuisson, Monica Patterson, Karen Smid, John Thiels, Sonia Das, Laura Brown, Sudha Shah, Karen Herbert, Xochi Ruiz, Patricia Moonsamy, Randall Hicks, Cecilia Tomori, Kim Clum, Anna Babel, and Maria Gonzales among others. I also include Laurie Marx among this group, but in my book she occupies a class all her own. For those who have had the pleasure of working with Laurie, this statement needs no explanation; she is an administrative miracle worker, compassionate soul, and dear friend. Her humor made even the worst days bearable and good days even better. There were moments when her reassuring hugs were the only thing that kept me going. I owe her much for her assistance over the years, administrative and otherwise. The many favors she performed on my behalf always went beyond the call of duty. iv In Bolivia, I was equally lucky to be surrounded by great friends and colleagues, many immersed in their own dissertation research or other creative endeavors. Among this group, I am especially grateful for the good times my family shared with our housemates and visitors to the Gringo Tambo during our periodic visits to La Paz: Stephen Scott, Kate McGurn-Centellas, Miguel Centellas, Alison Kohn, Clare Sammels, Chris Exner, Maria Bruno, Dado Galdieri, Erica Nelson, Laurence Cuelenaere, Kathryn Anderson, Kathryn Cook, Ben Smith, and Annie Murphy among others. For their passing company in the field and various levels of collaboration, I also wish to express my thanks to COBIMI, AECI, and CEDEC staff working in the Province of Bautista Saavedra. Dr. Jose Luis Baixeras, Dr. Gerardo Fernández Juárez, Susan Davis, Martha Mamani, and Samantha Wilson were especially helpful. I am equally grateful for the cooperation and support of numerous government offices in La Paz, including the Vice Ministry of Culture, Vice Ministry of Intangible Heritage, Vice Ministry of Traditional Medicine and Interculturality and the Direction of Traditional Medicine. I am particularly grateful for the opportunity to have interviewed and received numerous materials from Jaime Zalles, the newly appointed Vice Minister of Traditional Medicine and Interculturality, who passed away shortly after I left the field. Of course, no research gets done without financial assistance and I was fortunate to have had generous research and write-up grants, without which this dissertation would not have been possible. The pre-dissertation phases of this research were funded by grants from IIE Fulbright, the Department of Anthropology, and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. My dissertation fieldwork was supported with grants from the Wenner-Gren Foundation, Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) program through the U.S. Department of Education, and supplemental funds from the Department of Anthropology. Additional grants from Rackham, the Culture and Cognition Program and the Center for the Education of Women (CEW) covered the expense of follow-up fieldwork in Curva and research assistance with the transcription of interviews and other recorded events. While writing-up, I benefited from the financial support of Rackham, the Department of Anthropology, the Global Ethnic Literature Seminar (GELS) fellowship, the Mellon Dissertation Seminar fellowship, and the LACS Gutierrez Dissertation Award.