“Eu te benzo, eu te curo”: saberes e práticas de benzedeiras de Maceió-AL.

Abstract

This paper, from exploratory qualitative descriptive approach, aimed to understand the knowledge and practices of traditional healers (benzedeiras) in Maceió city, Alagoas, considering the components of healing and care of such as knowledge and practices , as well as the social role played by these persons in the community and the public health system. The case study are the healers who work in Maceió. Where all the data acquirement was performed through narrative interviews with an analysis of them supported by content analysis , the thematic , which consists of three steps : Pre -analysis , material exploration and processing and interpretation of results . Emerged in the study five central themes , which were described and analyzed (according to benchmarks in the area of health and anthropology) , namely: 1 ) Health and disease : insights and approaches to the world of healers , 2) Cure, Care and Culture: intersections between knowledge and doings of healers; 3) A path to faith: cure and care as a gift, learning, spiritual growth and wisdom; 4) Multiple relationships between healers and the community, and 5) Approaches and differences between traditional healers and the public health system. The main results obtained allowed us to understand the knowledge and practices of healers as a popular expression, meaningful of the cure and care. Through the systematic interview with the healers, we recognize that this study contributes for preservation of a popular practice and include this practices as an important component of the health system.