Abstract

GROSS ALBORNOZ, Milton; TERAN-PUENTE, Carlos  and  TERAN PUENTE, José María. Between dogma and reason: epidemic theories and social representations in the Covid-19 pandemic in Ecuador. Temperamentvm [online]. 2020, vol.16, e12927.  Epub June 06, 2022. ISSN 1699-6011.

In the West and during the hegemony of the Catholic Church, epidemics represented supernatural events produced by a divinity as punishment. This interpretation coerces the need for life change and repentance in the face of eternal punishment. Miasmatic theory was a first step in overcoming magical religious interpretation, limited by the level of scientific thought and technological development. Magical and religious axioms were challenged through rationality, which allowed humanity to constitute what is known as microbial theory, first, and later as "scientific medicine". In Ecuador, the absence of a social representation of health / disease as a biosicosocial process is observed. The dominant social representation, vertically imposed in the Covid-19 pandemic, assumes the microbial paradigm, combined with the religious magic. In a society as unequal as it is heterogeneous, forced discipline replaces deliberative social participation.

Keywords : Epidemic; Paradigm; Miasm; Contagion; Risk factors.