Between spell and prayer on the frontier of order: Amazonian “terrible women”?

Abstract

The main interlocutors of this article are a “curadora” and a “puxadeira” located in a rural quilombola community in the municipality of Santarém (PA). They keep their distance from other members of the community — who are negative and classify their healing practices as “macumbaria”. We did a situational analysis comparing this local category with that of witchcraft, for which women are historically condemned. This mechanism limits the healing practices and botanical knowledge of these amazonian amefricanas. Thus, gendered racism determines the notoriety of knowledge, therefore, the inheritance of the next generations.