Práticas de curas e benzedeiras e suas representações: o caso do distrito de Santa Luzia do Cariri-PB.

Abstract

The present work deals with the performance of the benzedeiras in the district of Santa Luzia do Cariri - PB from a perspective whose attention is focused on understanding how these practices of healing rituals are being performed through the healers of that place. Our specific interests were: to identify the history of the place so that we can temporarily and spatially situate our subjects, trying to identify a possible relation of the cultural practices of these as a result of the marks of continuity of the cultural expressions of the original peoples who inhabited the micro-region of Cariri Paraíba; to analyze the practices of the women and men of Santa Luzia do Cariri as a result of a continuous and dynamic process of accumulation of popular knowledge, highlighting how they are constituted their diverse rituals of magico-religious cures and the symbolic elements used in their achievements, as well as identify which are the main diseases and healing practices present in our research locus; and to research some speeches that are elaborated on the benzedeiras, highlighting how in the Western world they were presented within a framework of continuities and discontinuities, and, specifically, focusing on the discursive utterances of the priest and the doctor of the place in the sense of perceiving which representations these two subjects who hold religious and scientific knowledge, respectively, reserve for the mourners. We seek theoretical input in the field of Cultural History, especially in the articulations of Thompson (1998) and Chartier (1990). The method used was qualitative research (MINAYO, 1994) and the data collection was done through consultation of a general bibliography and the memory of old people. The studies made it possible to understand that this universe of healing involves the effective participation of women and men with diverse histories and experiences, but which resemble the simplicity and difficulties experienced. All are unanimous in asserting that they belong to the Catholic religion, although they are at the margin of institutionalized religion and perform their functions independently by establishing their own rules of order in their healing practices. They are the culturally characterized by their special power, able to control the physical, emotional and spiritual imbalance through blessing. Finally, we understand the position of the Catholic Church and the scientific medical knowledge about these practices, since it is impossible to think of the separate validation of these two discourses.