10

The world view of the ancient pre-Hispanic Nahua groups, their concepts of health and disease, as well as the diagnostic and therapeutic methods of the time are presented in this article. The social function of medicine, the psychic entities, the etiology of diseases, and the therapeutic resources used by traditional doctors or shamans are explained. The persistence of diagnostic and therapeutic methods from pre-Hispanic times to the present day among indigenous communities is surprising. Despite the oppression of the Inquisition, the pre-Hispanic gods are still held responsible, though under different names, for causing disease and restoring health.