Visiones sobre el temazcal mesoamericano: un elemento cultural polifacético

Abstract

This paper examines the way in which the concept of the “temazcal” or Mesoamerican steam bath, was reduced and simplified to having only medicinal and therapeutic characteristics. This exclusively curative vision, constructed from the time of the colonial period, was reinforced by positivism which denied and attacked other functions that previously characterized the “temazcal”. Neoevolutionary visions allow for the reevaluation of “temazcal’s” sexual, social, economic and cultural aspects, and the discovery of its multifaceted values.