Candomble, an African religious and healing tradition that spread to Brazil during the slave trade, relies heavily on the use of plants in its spiritual and medicinal practices. When its African adherents were forcibly transplanted to the New World, they faced the challenge not only of maintaining their culture and beliefs in the face of European domination but also of finding plants with similar properties to the ones they had used in Africa. This book traces the origin, diffusion, medicinal use, and meaning of Candomble's healing pharmacopoeia--the sacred leaves. Robert Voeks examines such topics as the biogeography of Africa and Brazil, the transference--and transformation--of Candomble as its adherents encountered both native South American belief systems and European Christianity, and the African system of medicinal plant classification that allowed Candomble to survive and even thrive in the New World. This research casts new light on topics ranging from the creation of African American cultures to tropical rain forest healing floras.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Fascinating because it brings together in a single book information drawn widely from the several disciplines of geography, botany, history, and anthropology to provide an account of the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomble... In a competent and readable manner." Sandra Lauderdale Graham, author of House and Street: The Domestic World of Servants and Masters in Nineteenth-Century Rio de Janeiro
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Review
Fascinating because it brings together in a single book information drawn widely from the several disciplines of geography, botany, history, and anthropology to provide an account of the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomblé... in a competent and readable manner. (Sandra Lauderdale Graham, author of House and Street: The Domestic World of Servants and Masters in Nineteenth-Century Rio de Janeiro )
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Voeks offers a fresh perspective!,
By eg83@columbia.edu (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sacred Leaves of Candomblé: African Magic, Medicine, and Religion in Brazil (Paperback)
Peter Voeks has accomplished something that Anthropologists and Religious Studies scholars have failed to do for years-- he has given us a fresh perspective on Candomble. Not since the early work of Robert Farris Thompson and Pierre Verger have I been so intrigued by a new publication on Afro-Brazilian religion. Voeks' book is both thoughtful and sensitive, and has something to offer the experienced student of Afro-Braziliana.
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