Spiritual Flora of Brazil’s African Diaspora: Ethnobotanical Conversations in the Black Atlantic (original) (raw)
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African Spiritual Healing in Brazil: Ethnobotanical Conversations in the Black Atlantic
Journal for the Study of Religion Nature and Culture
Candomblé was introduced to Brazil by enslaved and free West Africans in the early nineteenth century. One dimension of the religion is a profound association between a pantheon of deities (the orixás) and a pharmacopoeia of magico-medicinal plants. This article explores the means by which the black diaspora was able to organize an African-inspired spiritual ethnoora in the Americas. I argue that a cornucopia of esculent and medicinal plants had diffused back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean centuries before the arrival of most African slaves. Thus, while the primary rainforests of Africa and the Americas would have had little in common biologically, the increasing presence of exotic edible and medicinal cultivars and weeds contributed over time to their botanical similarity. This transatlantic ethnobotanical conversation greatly facilitated the ability of Brazil's African diaspora to recon gure their plant-based spiritual traditions in what was otherwise an alien oristic landscape.
Ethnobotany of Brazil’s African Diaspora: The Role of Floristic Homogenization
African Ethnobotany in the Americas, 2012
Nearly fi ve million enslaved Africans were transported to the shores of Brazil over the course of the Atlantic slave trade. During the latter stages, from the 1780s to 1851, the majority hailed from the Bight of Benin, representing especially the Yoruba, Ewe, and Fon peoples. The belief systems introduced by these sub-Saharan peoples were reassembled in Brazil under the generic name of Candomblé. Among the noteworthy features of this religion is a profound spiritual association between a pantheon of deities (the orixás) and a host of edible and medicinal plant species. This chapter demonstrates that Brazil's African diaspora capitalized on a cornucopia of esculent and medicinal plants that had diffused back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean as part of the Columbian Exchange. Centuries before the kidnapping and transport of most African slaves, the anthropogenic habitats of South America and West Africa-the second-growth forests, swiddens, plantations, trails, and kitchen gardens-exhibited signi fi cant fl oristic similarity. This early transatlantic botanical homogenization greatly enhanced the ability of newly arrived Africans and their descendants to reassemble their ethnobotanical traditions in what was otherwise an alien fl oristic landscape.
Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, 2020
Background: Cultural 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? Methods: We 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. Results: We 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. Conclusions: These 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.
The Ethnobotany of an Afro-Brazilian Community at Sertão do Valongo, Santa Catarina, Brazil
This paper aims to study the ethnobotany of a rural Afro-Brazilian group at Porto Belo (Santa Catarina State, Brazil) regarding the local plants (both native and exotic) that are recognized as a resource by this community. We also analyze how this knowledge is distributed within gender and age in this group. The community is located 12.5 miles far from the coast line, in a peripheral rural area in relation to the areas colonized by Portuguese, German, Italian and Polish immigrants. In spite of their Afrodescendant origin, they currently identify themselves as Protestants rather than Afrodescendants, since they represent one of the oldest groups of Seventh Day Adventists in Santa Catarina State. We conducted 22 interviews (44% of the target population) regarding their ethnobotany knowledge, which resulted in 132 botanical species known and used for medicine, food, construction, fodder and ornamental. The knowledge is heterogeneously distributed among gender and three generations analyzed, varying according to the use category. Native plants are poorly known when compared to exotic ones, however, plant knowledge is still important for their identity as a rural community.
Medicinal plants in cultures of Afro-descendant communities in Brazil, Europe and Africa
Acta Botanica Brasilica
Ethnomedicine focuses on empirical and traditional knowledge of healing practices of diff erent human groups, including the use of plants as medicine. We aimed to determine whether there is consensus regarding the use of plants in traditional medicine of Afro-descendant communities in Brazil, Europe and Africa. Data were obtained through interviews, walks-in-the-woods, participant observations and bibliographic searches. We analyzed similarities among data sets to determine whether there is convergence in the use of traditional medicinal plants among these communities considering that they share infl uence from African culture and a common spoken language (Portuguese). Similarities among communities were assessed through cluster analysis using presence or absence data for the variables. We recorded 405 medicinal plants, most of which were spontaneously occurring, although some were cultivated. Th e most represented botanical families were Asteraceae and Lamiaceae. Similarity in medicinal plants among communities was found to be tenuous due to the biogeographical and spatial characteristics of the biomes, and to historical and cultural peculiarities of each locality, resulting in diff erent sets of medicinal plants. Th is study contributes to understanding the role of the historical legacies of the African diaspora and of European (Portuguese) expansion in the adaptation and maintenance of new elements in local fl oras.
Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, 2021
Background: In spite of an increasing number of ethnobotanical market surveys in the past decades, few studies compare changes in plant species trade over time. The open-air market Ver-o-Peso (VOP) in Belém, located near the mouth of the Amazon River in the state of Pará, Brazil, is known for its wide variety of medicinal plants. A survey of VOP was published in 1984, but it remains unknown to what extent its botanical composition changed over 34 years. Furthermore, in northern Brazil, little attention has been given to the origins of the vernacular names of these plants. Our aim is to give an up-to-date overview of the VOP medicinal plant market, concentrating on changes in species composition and vernacular names over time. Methods: We collected medicinal plants and vernacular names at VOP in August 2018. We identified most plants at the Museo Paraense Emilio Goeldi Herbarium, where we also deposited vouchers and specimen labels. We compared our species composition data to the 1984 inventory by Van den Berg. Furthermore, we investigated the etymologies of the vernacular plant names. Results: We recorded 155 plant specimens and 165 corresponding vernacular names, and collected 146 specimens from the medicinal and ritual stalls of VOP reporting 86 species formerly not recorded at this market. Vernacular names had mostly Portuguese roots, followed by Tupi and African ones. We found 30 species also documented in 1984, and vernacular names that overlapped between both surveys were used for the same botanical species or genus, indicating that vernacular names have changed little in the past decades. Lastly, we found 26 more introduced species sold at VOP compared to 1984. Conclusions: Forest degradation and deforestation, prevalence of diseases, and methodological factors may play a role in the differences we found in our survey compared to 1984. Of the plants that did overlap between the two surveys, vernacular names of these plants were hardly different. Lastly, the lingual origins of the vernacular names in our survey and the origins of the plant species reflect the history of the intricate syncretism of medicinal plant practices of indigenous, Afro-Brazilian and European origins in Belém.
What’s in a name? Revisiting medicinal and religious plants at an Amazonian market
2021
Background In spite of an increasing number of ethnobotanical market surveys in the past decades, few studies compare changes in plant species trade over time. The open-air market Ver-o-Peso (VOP) in Belém, located near the mouth of the Amazon River in the state of Pará, Brazil, is known for its wide variety of medicinal plants. A survey of VOP was published in 1984, but it remains unknown to what extent its botanical composition changed over 34 years. Furthermore, in northern Brazil, little attention has been given to the origins of the vernacular names of these plants. Our aim is to give an up-to-date overview of the VOP medicinal plant market, concentrating on changes in species composition and vernacular names over time. Methods We collected medicinal plants and vernacular names at VOP in August 2018. We identified most plants at the Museo Paraense Emilio Goeldi Herbarium, where we also deposited vouchers and specimen labels. We compared our species composition data to the 1984 ...
The market: A dive into the Afro-Brazilian sacred universe?
RECIIS, 2011
Candomblé terreiros (plots of land) are intended as spaces to preserve African religious traditions within the Brazilian diaspora. In addition, they serve as multifunctional spaces for the purpose of integrating, autonomously or by means of governmental or international partnerships, the agenda of social actions aimed at developing a model of health care structured on values and norms. The aim is to rationally engage the conventional medical system, thus setting the stage for health care possibilities based on different cultural models. This model is associated with an understanding of the knowledge and practices developed and performed by Candomblé as a therapeutic system that might enable collaboration with local health systems and their specificities based on the system's significant use of plants for therapeutic purposes. Therefore, these religious therapeutic practices are addressed as a mechanism for opening communication channels with social spaces, particularly the public market, which is the preferred locus for Afro-Brazilian sacred consumption and presents an issue related to public policies and programs for natural and complementary medicines and/or medicinal plants and phytotherapic agents.
Las plantas trágico-tradicionales en las religiones afrocubanas
Natura Medicatrix Revista Medica Para El Estudio Y Difusion De Las Medicinas Alternativas, 1994
English Abslract: 1he slavery sys fem imposed in Cuba by the Sp oniards, brought as a consequence the introduction of more than a mil/ion of slaves aduring the colonial stage, from different places of We st Africa. 7hey belonged main/y from Yo ruba and Bantu cultures, and once in Cuba, were porticipants of a transculturation process and adaptation ta new conditions. From the religious point of view, this phenomenon was manifested in the syncreti zation of African religions with the catholic, appearing the different Rules, tenn used to group the rituals and magical practices of each culture. Among the different rules in Cuba are, the Ocha Rule (Y oruba}, the Palo Monte Rule (Bant), the Arar Rule (Dahomey), but also the Secret Society Abaku (Efik). In al/ these religions, plants hove a fundamental role: the spirits, orishas or gods live in the bush, and plants are one of their means of communication. 7he present work is a preliminary compilation abaut plants used in Afrocuban religions, including Cuban fo/k, English, Latín, Lucum, Congo and Abaku names, Ori sha ta whom they belong and fonn of utilization. 1his infonnation was gathered from the revission of the most relevant /iterature sources and a fie/d work with practi cians of those religions. Al/ the obtained infonnation is compi/ed in a database named «iGBONFINDA» {forest, in Yo ruba and Kikongo, respective/y).