Visual Rituals and Healing Practices
Herbs, Domestic Gardens, and the Medicine of Amazonian Forest Peoples
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29327/2401156.19.2-2Keywords:
Cartogr/Action, Brazilian Amazon, traditional knowledge, healing practices, visual ethnographyAbstract
This visual ethnographic essay examines the healing practices of forest peoples in the Brazilian Amazon, highlighting the relationships among medicinal plants, household gardens, blessings, prayers, and ancestral knowledge transmitted through oral traditions. Grounded in the perspective of Cartogr/Ação, the study follows the trajectories of midwives, healers, herbal practitioners, and other knowledge keepers who sustain forms of medicine based on the coexistence of material and spiritual dimensions of care. The narratives demonstrate that therapeutic efficacy extends beyond the pharmacological properties of plants, encompassing rituals, memories, affective bonds, senses of belonging, and specific modes of interaction between human and non-human beings. The essay engages with debates on coloniality, epistemicide, and the resilience of traditional knowledge systems, emphasizing the contributions of Indigenous, Afro-referenced, caboclo, and riverine epistemologies to collective practices of healing and well-being. The nineteen images included in the essay do not seek to identify particular subjects but rather to evoke atmospheres, sensibilities, and experiences rooted in everyday Amazonian life. As visual fragments, they embrace affections, reflections, and encounters, portraying the forest as a pedagogical, therapeutic, and epistemological territory. The study advocates for the recognition of gardens, marketplaces, and community spaces as sites of knowledge production, memory, and healing, contributing to the appreciation of historically marginalized forms of knowledge.
Keywords: Cartogr/Ação; Brazilian Amazon; traditional knowledge; healing practices; visual ethnography
References
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KILOMBA, Grada. Memórias da plantação: episódios de racismo cotidiano; tradução Jess Oliveira. Rio de Janeiro: Cobogó, 2020.
REIS, M.V. F. Política e religião: o envolvimento dos católicos carismáticos na política brasileira. Dissertação (Mestrado em Ciência Política) – Universidade Federal de São Carlos, 2011.
REIS, M.V. F.; ALBUQUERQUE E. C. Religião, política e educação: concepções de racismo religioso dos professores do estado do Amapá, 2016.
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