Incayawar M, Saucier JF. Pain in remote Andean communities–learning from Quichua (Inca) experience. Rural Remote Health. 2010 Jan-Mar;10(1):1379. Epub 2010 Jul 15. PubMed PMID: 20635837. [Free full text]
Researchers from the Institute for the Study of Quichua Culture and Health, Otavalo, Ecuador and Department of Psychiatry, Université de Montréal undertook a study to explore how Quichuas in the Andes perceive, describe, and cope with pain and reveal highly sophisticated perspectives, including:
The role of strong emotional experiences in the origin of psychological or physical illnesses, including pain, is a salient feature, and is probably an ethos of the Quichua people of the Andes. There is strong agreement among them that pain can lead to depression, anxiety, irritability, fearfulness, tiredness, sleep disturbances, poor appetite, a range of serious diseases, and even death.
A useful benchmark for future study.
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