Secret Language
 

"Machaj Juyai" is a language spoken only by a few families of herbalist healers, the Kallawaya, who live in the Bolivian Andes. This kinship group has transmitted their holistic medicinal knowledge from generation to generation. Machaj Juyai was a language spoken in ceremonial and healing contexts.

This rare, centuries-old language, and the knowledge derived thereof, is today facing extinction. UNESCO has declared language preservation a “matter of urgency” and proclaimed 2008 the International Year of Languages.

In 1889 at the Universal Exposition in France, the Kallawaya provided descriptive properties of more than 100 plants. The language contains indigenous knowledge of mineral, herbal, and animal resources used to prevent and cure illness.

The language of a people uniquely expresses and maintains the link to their way of life and knowledge. The disintegration of language is a critical sign of cultural degradation in society and the loss of the nuances of expression and communication in everyday life.

Today, much of traditional knowledge remains unknown to the practical life of modernity. Not only can the indigenous knowledge of various cultures link us to a better general health, but it can also provide us with an understanding of and appreciation for the rich texture of human experience and the great life of Nature that surrounds us.

 

March 5, 2008

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