Saúde e espiritualidade: diálogos sobre as práticas de cuidado em cultos afro-indígenas.

Abstract

Traditional Terreiro Communities are spaces of reception, counseling and treatment of groups historically excluded, among which is the black population. They represent spaces of health production in the sense that they share their knowledge in the community and in coping with their diseases and ills, producing solutions in a relation of exchange. Although we can not disregard the influence of spirituality on the well-being and health of people, this issue is not privileged in the academic field which minimizes the understanding of the scope of spiritual practices in the health / disease process. This is a qualitative study of the exploratory type, with an ethnomethodological approach with the objective of knowing and analyzing health care practices stemming from the cultural tradition of the adherents of the religions of African and indigenous matrices. Three priests from religious spaces of the mixed tradition of the City of Campina Grande - PB participated in the research. To collect the data, we used participant observation and the semi-structured interview, which were submitted to content analysis from Bardin's perspective and lexicographic analysis with the help of IRAMUTEQ. The results indicate the existence of a health care present in the Afro-indigenous houses of worship of Campina Grande, mainly linked to the cult of Jurema. We observed the existence of a concern to reestablish the health of the protected ones, thus corroborating with the initial hypothesis of this research. In this way, we reiterate the need to broaden the discussion / reflection of the spiritual dimension in the academic space, and thus to support other knowledge based on popular education in health and that bring a new dimension on coping with the processes of becoming ill. KEYWORDS: Health - Spirituality - Care - Terreiros