Welcome to Vital Matters.

Medicine and Well-being

Healing practices reflect the values, beliefs, and knowledge systems of a community. This theme explores how cultures understand the body, well-being, and care—through spiritual, herbal, ritual, and empirical traditions. Perspectives may highlight tools and practices of healing, the role of caregivers, and the intersections of well-being with faith, environment, and daily life.

EXPLORE FURTHER

15

PERSPECTIVES

Eulalie Dulnuan seated with bululs around her

A Childhood Memory of Unknowingly Entering a Rice Granary

Eulalie Dulnuan

A close-up shot of Myrlande Constant's piece "Haiti Madi 12 Janvye 2010." An assemblage of skeletal figures fill the artowkr, dressed in rich and fine clothing. One stands near a heap of corpses on the right hand stand.

A Portrait of Catastrophe and Care

Mamyrah Dougé-Prosper

Jahsun Edmonds

An Introduction to Jahsun Edmonds's Academic and Spiritual Practices

Jahsun Edmonds

Image shows a woven basket of yellow and purple corn kernels on top of colored corn on the cob.

Distribution of Corn: A Reflection of Wixárika Cosmology

Cyndy García-Weyandt

Mamyrah Dougé-Prosper stands in front of Myrlande Constant's artwork "Haiti Madi 12 Janvye 2010." She speaks to the audience, her arms raised foward as she articulates her speech.

Kombit Mutual Aid Systems

Mamyrah Dougé-Prosper

Carillo de la Cruz looks directly at the camera, caught in active speech. His hands are raised on either side of him. He stands before a table that is colorfully painted.

Making Language Visible: Bridging Language and Culture

Tutupika Carrillo de la Cruz

marigold detail of Tree of Death

Marigolds in Ritual, Memory, and Medicine

Matthew H. Robb

detail of cosas que Sangran, pink rope and flax

Tanya Aguiniga's Practice: In the Studio and Beyond

Natalie Godinez

A photograph of a wizarika man observing and receiving items associated with healing from a spiritual leader known as a mara'kame. He wears a simple whtie tunic and he sports a bowl-cut.

The Abilities and Practices of a Mara’kame

Cyndy García-Weyandt

screenshot of cochineal locations from Aguiniga's Storymap

The Cultural and Ecological Significance of Cochineal

Tanya Aguiñiga

Marlon Martin seated outside with traditional fabrics

The Cultural Meaning of Bululs and the Variation of Forms, Styles, and Uses Across Time and Regions

Marlon Martin

Tanya Aguiniga sitting in grass

The Impact of the Pandemic on Travelling During the Fowler Residency

Tanya Aguiñiga

Armand Camhol outside

The Lighter Sides of Bulul Figures and the Need for Cross-Cultural Studies

Armand Camhol

Armand Camhol outside

Uses and Meanings of Bulul

Armand Camhol

Minerva Carillo de la Cruz. She speaks while staring toward the left, her left hand raised as she touches one of her earrings. Behind her lies a white, circular sign reading in Spanish "Sabor y Tradición Wixárika" in a pink, handwritten font.

Wixárika Culinary Traditions: Food, Memory, and Culture

Minerva Carrillo de la Cruz

6

ARTWORKS

Cosas que Sangran

Tanya Aguiñiga

A hanging sculpture by Tanya Aguiniga, made of different textiles, in various shades of pink and brown

El Arbol de la Muerte: Maquilando Mujeres (The Tree of Death: Factory Women)

Veronica Castillo

An elaborate ceramic sculpture by Veronica Castillo, with figures representing factory workers, murdered women, murderers and iconography associated with precolonial and Catholic Mexico.

Haiti Madi 12 Janvye 2010 (Haiti, Tuesday, January 12, 2010)

Myrlande Constant

Myrlande Constant's Haiti Madi 12 Janvye, brightly colored square textile completely covered with elaborate beadwork. The beadwork depicts scenes in Haiti after the earthquake in 2010, including dead, injured and grieving people. It also depicts figures from the Vodun religion and related iconography.

Rice granary guardian male and female figures (bululs)

Attributed to the carver Taguiling

A pair of male and female carved wooden figures. The arms of each figure are crossed, and the two figurines are slightly turned towards each other.

They Are With Us

Patrisse Cullors

Still of Patrisse Cullors in red crown from her film They Are With Us. Cullors is wearing an elaborate red headress, with strings of red beads veiling her face. The background is blurred green.

Untitled

José Benítez Sánchez

A brightly colored circular artwork made of yarn. Depicted are various animals and plants from the Wixarkia cosmology.

11

PEOPLE

Tanya Aguiniga with a top knot, smiling and wearing glasses and a black top

Tanya

Aguiñiga

Artist, Designer, and Craftsperson

Armand Camhol with short hair and a thin mustache, wearing a grey button up shirt

Armand

Camhol

Doctoral Candidate

National Chengchi University in Taiwan

Minerva Carillo de la Cruz wearing a white dress and leaning up against a natural element

Minerva

Carrillo de la Cruz

Director of Indigenous Affairs

City of Tepic, Nayarit

Tutupika Carillo de la Cruz outside, in colorful clothing, wiht a round thatch rooted building behind him

Tutupika

Carrillo de la Cruz

Linguist and Language Activist

Mamyrah Douge Prosper standing oiutside with her arms crossed, wearing a blue dress

Mamyrah

Dougé-Prosper

Assistant Professor of Global and International Studies

University of California, Irvine

Eulalie Dulnuan wearing a white shirt and a necklace with multiple strands of beads, her hands are raised as if caught gesturing while talking

Eulalie

Dulnuan

Tourism and Cultural Officer

President of the Ifugao Intangible Heritage and Performing Arts Society

Jahsun Edmonds wearing a green khaki coat and a white shirt

Jahsun

Edmonds

Adjunct Professor of Africana Studies at California State University Dominguez Hills

Ifa Priest (Babalawo)

Cindy Weyandt outside, wearing a beige wool coat and red scarf

Cyndy

García-Weyandt

Assistant Professor

Department of Critical Ethnic Studies, Kalamazoo College

Natalie Godinez in her studio wearing a bright orange jumpsuit with images of her prints behind her

Natalie

Godinez

Artist and Educator

Co-Director, AMBOS Project

Marlon Martin wearing tinted glasses and looking straight at the camera

Marlon

Martin

Executive Director of Save the Ifugao Terraces Movement

Co-director of Ifugao Archaeological Project

Matthew H.

Robb

Mesoamerican Specialist

Library of Congress