Reflections on using the term “tradicional medicine” by naturology

Abstract

The objective of this study is to expand the conceptual discussions about Naturology, problematizing the issue of using the term traditional applied to medicines and health practices used by naturologists in Brazil, an issue which had been pointed out in the Fourth Conceptual Forum of Naturology, in 2013, but that had not been detailed. In the first section of this paper a literature review about the term tradition was made. The second segment presented the scholars opposed to the use of the term traditional medicine in the West, which, state that what is traditional in other parts of the world may not necessarily be referred as traditional in Brazil. The third section presented the favorable arguments on the use of this terminology, based on the Lévi-Strauss’ notion of symbolic efficacy and the non-hegemonic characteristic of health practices of returning the symbolic dimension to the healing process, which would make them – as well as the Naturology by itself – traditional.