Spirits with scalpels : the culturalbiology of religious healing in Brazil / Sidney M. Greenfield.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Greenfield, Sidney M.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ethnobiology--Brazil.

Ethnobiology.

Healing--Brazil.

Healing.

Traditional medicine--Brazil.

Traditional medicine.

Spirit possession--Brazil.

Spirit possession.

Brazil--Religious life and customs.

Brazil.

Brazil--Social life and customs.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (241 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Walnut Creek, CA : Left Coast Press, c2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"The first time I witnessed a Spiritist surgery, a young man named Jose Carlos Ribeiro inserted a used scalpel taken from a tray that I was holding, and plunged it into the eye of an elderly man. The patient did not move...." Decades of fieldwork later, Sidney Greenfield presents a riveting ethnography of the complex world of religious healing in Brazil that challenges readers to grapple with the most fundamental concepts of anthropology and cross-cultural experience. In a major contribution to cultural biology, he analyses the complex social, economic, and political landscape of Brazil to

Contents:

Contents; Prologue; Map; An Invitation and Introduction; Part I. Surgeries and Other Healing in Kardecist-Spiritism; Chapter 1. José Carlos Ribeiro: An Introduction to Spiritist Therapy; Chapter 2. Edson Queiroz: Spirit Surgeries in Recife; Chapter 3. Antonio de Oliveira Rios in Palmelo; Chapter 4. Mauricio Magalhães in Campo Grande; Chapter 5. Not All Patients Are Cured: Kardecism's Approach to Death and Dying; Chapter 6. The Disobsession: Another Form of Spiritist Treatment; Chapter 7. Healing and the Competition for Religious Converts

Part II. Healing by the Spirits in Other Brazilian Popular Religions Chapter 8. Religion and Religious Diversity in Brazilian History; Chapter 9. Pilgrimage and Healing in "Popular" Catholicism; Chapter 10. Healing by the Spirits in the African-Derived Traditions; Chapter 11. Healing in Umbanda; Chapter 12. Evangelicals and Healing by the Holy Ghost; Chapter 13. Healing in the Competitive Religious Marketplace; Part III. Spirits, Healing, and a New Paradigm; Chapter 14. Healing by Spirits and Science; Chapter 15. Science as a Cultural Process

Chapter 16. Communication, Information Flow, and a New Paradigm Chapter 17. Ritual, Altered States of Consciousness, and Cultural biological Healing; Chapter 18. Cultural biology and the Marketplace of Religion in Brazil; Postscript; Notes; References; Index

Notes:

First published 2008 by Left Coast Press, Inc.

Includes bibliographical references.

Description based on metadata supplied by the publisher and other sources.

ISBN:

1-315-41983-1

1-315-41984-X

1-315-41985-8

1-59874-740-1

9781315419855

OCLC:

647881040