Abstract
BackgroundCultural and religious practices of African origin have decisively influenced traditional health practices in the Americas since the African diaspora. Plants are core elements in the religions of African origin. Compared with other parts of Brazil where the Afro-Brazilian presence is widely recognized, in Southern Brazil, these cultural practices are often socially invisible. Yet, there are several terreiros of three Afro-Brazilian religions: Candomblé, Umbanda, and Ritual deAlmas e Angola. We hypothesize that the importance of plants in Afro-Brazilian religions is linked not only to spiritual and magical issues but also to the medicinal properties of these plants. We seek to answer the following questions: (a) Which plants are used in the terreiros and what are their indications for use?; (b) Are there plants that stand out culturally in these religious groups?; and (c) What is the importance of the adaptive maintenance and replacement process in the use of plants in these religions, considering the Neotropical and African plants?MethodsWe performed a census of the existing terreiros on the Island of Santa Catarina to collect information on the knowledge and use of plants. In all terreiros that consented to participate in the research, we collected data through semi-structured interviews, guided tours for plant collection, and participant observation. We identified the botanical species through expert consultations and botanical literature.ResultsWe interviewed 27 spiritual leaders, who cited 93 plants belonging to 86 botanical species. We identified 14 categories of use, with emphasis on liturgical ritual use (59%), general and unspecified diseases (32%), and digestive diseases (27%). In most liturgics uses, direct contact between plant and patient occurs, as in the case of bathing and the cleansing use of smoke. Sixteen plants were cited in all terreiros, configuring a set of species that can be considered as culturally important plants for these religious groups.ConclusionsThese groups have extensive knowledge about a highly consensual set of therapeutic plants that should be further investigated pharmacologically to understand the effect of their external use. Also, we emphasize the importance of recognizing and valuing this ancestral Afro-Brazilian knowledge and learning also from these people about their broader vision of health which also adds more spirituality in health care.
Highlights
The African diaspora, a sociocultural and historical phenomenon, characterized by the forced immigration of the African population to countries that adopted slave labor, had a decisive influence on traditional health practices on the American continent
We seek to answer the following questions: (a) Which plants are used in the terreiros and what are their indications for use including liturgical and physical illnesses’ spheres?; (b) Are there plants that stand out culturally in these religious groups?; (c) What is the importance of the adaptive maintenance and replacement process in the use of plants in these religions, considering the Neotropical and African plants used for liturgic or physical illnesses?
The richness of plants registered in the Candomblé, Umbanda, and Almas e Angola religions on Santa Catarina Island reinforces the importance of plants in AfroBrazilian religions, in the conceptualization of health, and the religious and cultural identity of these groups
Summary
The African diaspora, a sociocultural and historical phenomenon, characterized by the forced immigration of the African population to countries that adopted slave labor, had a decisive influence on traditional health practices on the American continent. Africans have been present in Brazil since the early days of colonization in the sixteenth century During this period, it is estimated that about 4.9 million people were brought as slaves to the Brazilian territory [16]. In the process of adaptation to the new territory, slaves became familiar with local plants, learning and adapting their knowledge of medicinal and magical properties and remodeling their medicinalritualistic system [20] In this context, Medeiros et al [21] argued that immigration provides two main processes for adapting knowledge: (1) replacement to the new flora of the host country and (2) maintenance through use and acquisition of the original flora from migrants’ home countries. We seek to answer the following questions: (a) Which plants are used in the terreiros and what are their indications for use?; (b) Are there plants that stand out culturally in these religious groups?; and (c) What is the importance of the adaptive maintenance and replacement process in the use of plants in these religions, considering the Neotropical and African plants?
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