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Persecuted as evil during colonial times, considered charlatans during the nation-building era, Puerto Rican brujos (witch-healers) today have become spiritual entrepreneurs who advise their clients not only in consultation with the spirits but also in compliance with state laws and new economic opportunities. Combining trance, dance, magic, and healing practices with expertise in the workings of the modern welfare state, they help lawyers win custody suits, sick employees resolve labor disability claims, single mothers apply for government housing, or corporation managers maximize their commercial skills. Drawing on extensive fieldwork among practicing brujos, this book presents a masterful...
First multi-year cumulation covers six years: 1965-70.
An inspiring work of oral history, Earth and Spirit explores and celebrates Puerto Rico's tradition of botanical medicine as it was practiced up to the 1980s. This lively and deeply personal glimpse of Caribbean healing presents the voices of dozens of people who knew, loved and worked with medicinal plants and island earth lore. Ten interviews feature traditional curanderos, a granny midwife, spiritual healers, natural beauticians and others. Remedies are presented in an extensive recipe section organized by health condition, ranging from Alcohol Addiction to Warts. The author's foreword and epilog place the work in cultural and ecological contexts, and all plants are cross referenced with their English, Puerto Rican and scientific names. Rich in practical wisdom, anecdotes and humor, Earth and Spirit inspires love and respect for the living world of plants and for the resourceful people of Puerto Rico who have helped keep this tradition alive. A timeless and beautiful experience, a thought-provoking, fun and useful reference. For your kitchen. For your bedroom! Salud!
Full of medical folklore and healing tales, Remedios presents the history of the many women--and cultures--who have met at the crossroads of the islands of Puerto Rico. Beginning with the First Mother in sub-Saharan Africa more than 200,000 years ago, Aurora Levins Morales takes readers on a journey through time and around the globe. We learn of Juana de Asbaje, author of the "Reply to Sor Filotea" in 1693, the first feminist essay written in the New World; Gracia Nasi, Constantinople's "Queen of the Jews"; the African-American activist and warrior of words Ida B. Wells; and the unlikely martyr and symbol, Ethel Rosenberg. Levins Morales weaves in her own story of pain and healing, ameliorat...
This book debunks one of the greatest myths ever told in Caribbean history: that the indigenous peoples who encountered a very lost Christopher Columbus are 'extinct.' Through the uncovering of recent ethnographical data, the author reveals extensive narratives of Jíbaro Indian resistance and cultural continuity on the island of Borikén.
A quiet revolution is taking place in America's forests. Once seen primarily as stands of timber, our woodlands are now prized as a rich source of a wide range of commodities, from wild mushrooms and maple sugar to hundreds of medicinal plants whose uses have only begun to be fully realized. Now as timber harvesting becomes more mechanized and requires less labor, the image of the lumberjack is being replaced by that of the forager. This book provides the first comprehensive examination of nontimber forest products (NTFPs) in the United States, illustrating their diverse importance, describing the people who harvest them, and outlining the steps that are being taken to ensure access to them....
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