Abstract
In highland Ecuador, pena refers to a state of mind characterized by a mixture of sadness and anxiety as well as to an illness state resembling depression. This paper attempts to illustrate, through an analysis of the discourse on pena, how the ideology in which it is embedded serves to interpret a bodily problem at the same time as it reflects a more global attitude toward life. In essence, the folk theory states that the physical complaints caused by suffering are the result of a disturbance of the heart, the central organ of man, and of the emotional life which it controls. Because this suffering is often attributed to the immediate family group of the victim, the community at large often formulates accusations against one of its members. Though the therapy is limited to a cure of the symptoms through herbal remedies, a formal request can be made to a perceived wrongdoer to amend his behavior. The pena is also a state which can lead to colerin, a dangerous and sometimes lethal illness which is characterized by a sudden explosion of anger or madness and which will follow an unattended state of pena.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bibeau, Gilles 1983 L'activation des mécanismes endogènes d auto-guérison dans les traitements rituels des Angbandi. Culture 3: 33–50.
Caycho Jimenez, J. A. 1979 Sistematica nosografca del folklore medico en el Peru. Lima: Peru.
Katon, W., A. Kleinman, and G. Rosen 1982 Depression and Somatization: A Review (Part I). The American Journal of Medicine 72: 127–135.
Kleinman, Arthur 1982 Neurasthenia and Depression: A Study of Somatization and Culture in China. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 6: 117–190.
Leff, Julian 1981 Psychiatry Around the Globe. New York: Marcel Dekker.
Lutz, Catherine 1982 Depression and the Translation of Emotional Worlds. Paper presented at the American Anthropological Association, Washington, D.C., December 1982.
Marsella, A. J. 1979 Depressive Experience and Disorder Across Cultures. In Handbook of CrossCultural Psychology. Psychopathology, Volume 6. H. C. Triandis and J. G. Draguns (ed.), Boston: Allyn and Bacon Inc.
Sal y Rosas, F. 1973 Algunas observaciones sobre el folklore psiquiatrico del Peru. Acta psiquiatrica y psicologica de America Latina 19: 56–65.
Stark, L. R. and P. C. Muysken 1980 Diccionario espanol-quichua. Quito: Museo del Bacoo Central.
Stevenson, I. N. 1977 Colerina: Reactions to Emotional Stess in the Peruvian Andes. Social Sciences and Medicine 11: 303–307.
Taussig, M. T. 1980 The Devil and Commodity Fetishism in South America. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.
Tousignant, Michel 1979 Espanto: A Dialogue with the Gods. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 3: 347–361.
Tousignant, Michel 1983 La pena dans la sierra équatorienne: étude psycho-anthropologique de la tristesse. Culture 3: 67–77.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tousignant, M. Pena in the Ecuadorian Sierra: A psychoanthropological analysis of sadness. Cult Med Psych 8, 381–398 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00114664
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00114664