Spirits with Scalpels: The Cultural Biology of Religious Healing in Brazil

by Greenfield,Sidney M

• ISBN13: 9781598743678
• ISBN10: 1598743678
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-10-15
• Publisher: Routledge

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 movehellip;." 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 understand dramatic healing practices that seem to defy medical explanation. This engrossing and provocative book will put students and scholars alike on the edge of their seats.

Author Biography

Sidney M. Greenfield is Professor of Anthropology Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Table of Contents

Jose Carlos Ribeiro : an introduction to spiritist therapy	p. 23
Edson Queiroz : spirit surgeries in Recife	p. 35
Antonio de Oliveira Rios in Palmelo	p. 49
Mauricio Magalhaes in Campo Grande	p. 57
Not all patients are cured : Kardecism's approach to death and dying	p. 65
The disobsession : another form of spiritist treatment	p. 73
Healing and the competition for religious converts	p. 89
Religion and religious diversity in Brazilian history	p. 95
Pilgrimage and healing in "popular" Catholicism	p. 103
Healing by the spirits in the African-derived traditions	p. 117
Healing in Umbanda	p. 125
Evangelicals and healing by the Holy Ghost	p. 135
Healing in the competitive religious marketplace	p. 145
Healing by spirits and science	p. 155
Science as a cultural process	p. 163
Communication, information flow, and a new paradigm	p. 167
Ritual, altered states of consciousness, and culturalbiological healing	p. 181
Culturalbiology and the marketplace of religion in Brazil	p. 193
Postscript	p. 203
Notes	p. 205
References	p. 213
Index	p. 231
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