Abstract

We present research results on health policies aimed at the Aymara people of Northern Chile and the health practices of the community attached to it. We analyze the conceptual bases of the work carried out by the Ministry of Health and discuss the notion of interculturality that is applied in them. Under an interpretative framework that considers history as the central axis of the analysis, we present collected data regarding the activities against disease and the conceptual bases that Aymara families carry out and elaborate in the Tarapaca region. The study of the medical models and systems in course is fundamental to advance to a greater equity. The stated purposes of the Chilean State to solve health problems of the indigenous population can be achieved if a multidimensional health concept is taken into account that considers the complexity of the phenomenon, if the Aymara community’s health traditions are distinguished from the conditions of health and the demands on health that ethnic leaders have raised. Also, new working conditions must be generated for professionals in the public health system.