Invited Guest Speakers

Dr. Reygadas works at the InterCultural and Indigenous University of Michoacan. He has a PhD in Anthropology from Mexico’s National School of Anthropology and History, MA in Philosophy from York University, and MA in Linguistics from Mexico’s National School of Anthropology and History. He is also a human rights activist in Mexico.

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The talk critically analyzed how conventional Western medicine  tends to focus on individual physicality at the expense of the mental, the spiritual and the social. In contrast, traditional knowledge places emphasis on energy, matter, information, and spirituality, which is usually dismissed by mainstream medical science. Yet, different paths to healing and health have been paved by the complementarity of traditional knowledge and medicine, which have been evident in quantum physics and epigenetics. Such complementarity is central to notions of health and healing that do not only center around the individual but also expand to the community and the environment as described in the concept of buen vivir (good living) rooted in the worldview of the Quechua peoples of the Andes.