Beliefs and Practices Concerning Medicine and Nutrition Among Lower-Class Urban Guatemalans

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Abstract
Fifty seven lower-class non-Indian families in Guatemala City were interviewed to determine current medical and nutritional beliefs and practices. The sample was entirely dependent upon wage labor and the highest reported income was $80.00/month. Ideas of a proper diet are determined in part by traditional beliefs concerning innate properties of foods, such as their degree of magical "hotness", "strength", digestibility and growth promoting qualities. However, all families would have eaten better had their incomes been higher. Medical beliefs and practices appear to be based on a mixture of traditional and modern scientific knowledge. Diseases are attributed to physical, psychological and magical causes, and include such concepts as contagion, filth, fright, embarrassement, the evil eye, and "airs". Both preventive and curative measures are utilized in handling disease and the threat of disease.

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