Contact us on (02) 8445 2300
For all customer service and order enquiries

Woodslane Online Catalogues

9780826355317 Academic Inspection Copy

Spiritual Currency in Northeast Brazil

Description
Author
Biography
Google
Preview
This book examines the spiritual community of the followers of St. Francis of Wounds in the town of Caninde in northeast Brazil. Their tradition involves pilgrimage and the practice of crafting unique offerings in payment for healing and reversal of bad fortune - a practice predating Christianity and brought to the new world by explorers and early European colonial powers. King argues that these marginalized Brazilians, living in a region where poverty is endemic, use St. Francis of Wounds to replace the medical and social services that the government has failed to provide. She further illustrationstrates the evolution of the regional practice with photographs documenting all stages of this tradition, especially the folk art ex-votos used to pay for the saint's intervention.
Lindsey King is an assistant professor of anthropology at East Tennessee State University.
Google Preview content