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Paper short abstract

With a majority of women, the temazcal reproduces established gender hierarchies while simultaneously functioning as a core part of the interviewed women’s self-care strategy. In this way, it operates as a tool for coping with the burden of care and surviving within an unequal gender system.

Paper long abstract

Following the conclusions of Sointu and Woodhead (2008), the temazcal, and new spiritualities as a whole, would be positioned as a tool that, while reproducing gender stereotypes and power relations, also forms part of the Basque women’s self-care strategy. Being a ritual with a majority of women, during my master’s thesis I discovered how the temazcal was a place where autonomy over one's own health, intensification of the relationship with the elements of nature, and an affirmation of the identity of the interlocutors converged.

The temazcal, also known as a sweat lodge, is an ancient ritual that belongs to the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and North America and came to the Basque Country through a movement known as “El Camino Rojo” (The Red Road). This organization emerged in the 1980s as a fusion of the rituals of the two peoples and aims to spread the temazcal and several other rituals, such as the Sun Dance and the Vision Quest, throughout the American and European continents. In its original format, the Camino Rojo temazcal has a very marked gender hierarchy and reproduces very strict gender stereotypes and gender-based power relations, as one of my interlocutors stated. She also had to fight to gain more parity for women within that fixed structure and gain a respected place in the hierarchy.