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name: Joseph W. Bastien
about: Joseph W. Bastien is a professor of Anthropology at the University of Dr. Joseph BastienTexas at Arlington. Dr. Bastien received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1973. He has done research in Latin America since 1963. His major publications are Mountain of the Condor: Metaphor and Ritual in an Andean Ayllu, Health in the Andes, co-edited with John Donahue, Healers of the Andes: Kallawaya Herbalists and Their Medicinal Plants, Drum and Stethoscope: Integrating Ethnomedicine and Biomedicine in Bolivia, La Montana del Condor, and The Kiss of Death: Chagas' Disease in the Americas. He is actively involved in the use of Bolivian medicinal plants for curing AIDS, and together with scientists has discovered an effective treatment for this dise Joseph W. Bastien is a professor of Anthropology at the University of Dr. Joseph BastienTexas at Arlington. Dr. Bastien received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1973. He has done research in Latin America since 1963. His major publications are Mountain of the Condor: Metaphor and Ritual in an Andean Ayllu, Health in the Andes, co-edited with John Donahue, Healers of the Andes: Kallawaya Herbalists and Their Medicinal Plants, Drum and Stethoscope: Integrating Ethnomedicine and Biomedicine in Bolivia, La Montana del Condor, and The Kiss of Death: Chagas' Disease in the Americas. He is actively involved in the use of Bolivian medicinal plants for curing AIDS, and together with scientists has discovered an effective treatment for this disease that would lessen by a third the dosage presently required.The Kiss of Death: Chagas' Disease in the Americas is a result of eight years of research, beginning in 1991 when Dr. Bastien was invited to be an advisor on social and cultural factors for the National Conference on Chagas' Disease in La Paz, Bolivia. Dr. Bastien subsequently received a Fullbright-Hayes research fellowship to do fieldwork in Bolivia concerning Chagas' disease. He returned to Bolivia annually to study social and cultural aspects of this disease and to evaluate Chagas' disease throughout Central on South America. Dr. Bastien with Bolivian kidsDr. Bastiens's love for Andean culture began in 1963, when he began work in La Paz and the Altiplano as a Maryknoll priest. At various times during his six years as a priest, he directed a youth center in a poor neighborhood of La Paz, led a training school for Aymaras in Penas of the Bolivian Altiplano. Dr. Bastien speaks Spanish, Aymara, and Quechua. In 1969, he left the priesthood and married Judy Wagner. Together they returned to Bolivia to do anthropological research among the world-famous Kallawaya herbalists. Bastien has written many articles and books about their ethnomedicine, especially herbal and ritual curing. It is Bastien's experience that Andeans have an ancient medical system that has allowed them to adapt to mountainous regions with success. Their use of rituals and herbals can be effectively used for dealing with Chagas' disease. Kiss of Death is a testimony to this. ...more