Maya Medicine: An Analysis of the Maya Concept of the Cardiovascular System
By: Juan J. Olivero and Garabed Eknoyan
References
- Hammond N. Maya revelation and re-evaluation. Antiquity. 2015 Dec;89(348):1501-1510. doi: 10.15184/aqy.2015.141
- Restall M, Solari A.
The Maya . A very short introduction. Ashland, OR: Tantor and Blackstone Publishing; 2021 Mar. - O’Neil ME.
The Maya: Lost Civilization . London: Rakoten Books Ltd.; 2022. 296 p. - Toynbee AJ.
A Study of History, Vol. 1: Abridgement of Volumes I-VI . Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press; 1987. 640 p. - Coe MD, Houston S.
The Maya (Ancient Peoples and Places) . London, UK: Thames and Hudson; 2022. 320 p. - Culbert TP.
Maya Civilization (Exploring the Ancient World) . Montreal: St. Remy Press and Smithsonian Institution; 1993. 320 p. - Pillsbury J, Mazariegos OC, Doyle JA, et al.
Lives of the Gods, Divinity in Maya Art . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press; 2022. 244 p. - Freidel D, Schele L, Parker J.
Maya Cosmos . Three thousand years on the Shaman’s Path. New York, NY: William Morrow and Co.; 1995. 543 p. - The Classic Maya Collapse. In: Middleton GD.
Understanding Collapse: Ancient history and Modern Myth . New York, NY: Cambridge University Press; 2017. p. 244-275. - Baquera R, Castillo C, Nägele K, Perez-Ramallo P, Hernandez-Zaragoza D. Ancient genomes reveal insights into ritual life in Chichen Itza. Nature. 2024 Jun;630(6):912-919. doi: 10.1038/s4156-024-07509-7
- Kunow MA.
Maya Medicine . Traditional healing in Yucatán. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press; 2003. 160 p. - Andren T. Mending the past. Ixchel and the invention of a modern pop goddess. Antiquity. 2006 Mar:80(307):25-37. doi: 10.1080/0032747.1970.11023636
- Huber ER, Sandstrom AR.
Mesoamerican Healers . Austin, TX: University of Texas Press; 2001. 419 p. - Guerra F. Maya Medicine, Med Hist. 1964 Jan;8(1):31-43. doi: 10.1017/S0025727300029070
- Garcia-Kutzbach A. Medicine among the ancient Maya. South Med J. 1976 Jul;69(7):938-940. doi: 10.1097/00007611-197607000-00045
- Durán CM.
Las Ciencias Medicas En Guatemala . Origen y Evolución Cuarta Edicion. Med Hist. Guatemala: Editorial Universitaria;1945. 579 p. - Tenzel JH. Shamanism and concepts of disease in a Mayan Indian community. Psychiatry. 1970 Mar;33(3):372-380. doi: 10.1080/00332747.1970.11023636
- Roys RL, editor.
Rituals of the Bacabs: A book of Maya Incantations . Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press; 1965. 234 p. - Thompson JES. Symbols, glyphs, and divinatory almanacs for diseases in the Maya Dresden and Madrid codices. Amer Antiquity. 1958 March;23(3):292-308. doi: 10.2307/276312
- Waldam JB.
An Imperative to Cure . Principles and practice of Q’eqchi’ Maya medicine in Belize. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press; 2020. 288 p. - Watson SE, Schnell JT, Morrell-Heart S, Scherer AK, Dussoff L. Health care in the marketplace: Exploring Maya medicinal plants and practices at Piedras Negras, Guatemala. Anc Mesoamer. 2023 Feb;34(2):383-406.
- Tessler V, Cumina A, editors.
New Perspectives and Human Sacrifice in Ancient Maya Society . New York, NY: Springer; 2007. 330 p. - Hernandez-Bolio GI, Quintana P, Ramirez-Solomon M, et al. Organic compositional analysis of ancient Maya tooth sealants and fillings. J Archeol Science Reports. 2022 Jun;43:103-135. doi: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2022.103435
- Our World in Data [Internet]. Oxford, UK: University of Oxford. Daltani S, Rodés-Guirao L, Ortiz-Espina E, Rosen M. Life Expectancy; 2026 [cited 2026 Jul 10]. Available from:
https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy - Munson J, Amati V, Collard M, Maeré MJ. Classic Maya bloodletting and the cultural evolution in religious rituals: Quantifying patterns of variation in hieroglyphic texts. PlosOne. 2014 Sep;9(9):
e107982 . doi: 10.1371/journl.phone.0107982 - Houston SD, Stuart D, Taube K.
The Memory of Bones . Body, being and experience among the classic Maya. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press; 2006. 334 p. - Tiesler V, Oliver G. Open chests and broken hearts. Ritual sequences and meanings of human heart sacrifice in Mesoamerica. Curr Anthropol. 2020 Apr;61(2):168-193. doi: 10.1086/708189
- Fray Diego de Landa.
An Account of the Things of Yucatan . Mexico City, Monclem Editiones; 2000. 174 p. - de Sahagun B, Dibble CE, Anderson AJO.
Florentine Codex: Book 10: Book 10 . The people. 2nd edition. Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press; 1981. 212 p. - Baird ET.
Chapter 13: Parts of Body. Order and Disorder . In: Peterson JF, Terraciano K, editors. The Florentine Codex: An encyclopedia of the Nahua work in sixteenth century, Mexico. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press; 2019. 256 p. - Austin AL.
Sahagun’s Work and the medicine of the Nahuas: Possibilities for study in sixteenth century Mexico . In: Edmonson M. Sixteenth-Century Mexico: The Work Of Sahagun. Albuquerque, NM: University of Utah Press; 1974. p. 205-224. - Messer E. The hot and cold in Mesoamerican indigenous and Hispanicized thoughts. Soc Sci Med. 1987 April;25(4):339-346. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(87)90272-3
- Balick MJ, DeGezelle JM, Arvigo R. Feeling the pulse in Maya medicine: An engendered traditional tool for diagnosis, therapy and tracking patient’s progress. Explore. 2008 Mar-Apr;4(2):113-119. doi: 10.1016/j.explore.2007.12.002
- Wierda B, van ter Toolen L, van Veen HT.
The Codex of the Anonymo Magliabechiano: Newly edited with a transcription faithful to the original manuscript . Leiden, Germany: Brill Publishers; 2024. 624 p. - Caceres A, Girón LM, Martinez AM. Diuretic activity of plants for the treatment of urinary ailments in Guatemala. J Ethnopharm. 1987 May;19(5):233-245. doi: 10.1016/0378-8741(87)900001-8
- Castañeda R, Cáceres A, Cruz SM, et al. Nephroprotective plant species used in traditional Mayan medicine for renal-associated diseases. J Ethnopharm. 2023 Jan;301(1):115755. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2022.115755
- Paul PD. Maya bonesetter as sacred specialist. Ethnology. 1976 Jan;15(1):77-81. doi: 10.2307/3773081
- Paul L, Paul PD. The Maya midwifes as sacred professional. A Guatemalan case. Am Ethnol. 1975 Nov;2(4):707-726.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14797/mdcvj.1844 | Journal eISSN: 1947-6108
Language: English
Page range: 119 - 125
Submitted on: Apr 10, 2026
Accepted on: Apr 14, 2026
Published on: Sep 15, 2026
Published by: Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Keywords:
© 2026 Juan J. Olivero, Garabed Eknoyan, published by Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License.