Healing Cultures : Art and Religion As Curative Practices in the Caribbean and Its Diaspora

The Spanish expression - la cultura cura (culture heals) - is an affirmation of the potential healing power of a variety of cultural practices that together constitute the ethos of a people. What happens, however, when cultures themselves are in jeopardy? What are the "antidotes" or healing modalities for an ailing culture? Healing Cultures addresses these questions from a variety of disciplines - anthropology, holistic folk traditions, literature, film, cultural and religious studies - bringing together the broad range of beliefs and the spectrum of practices that have sustained the peoples and cultures of the Caribbean. Front Matter....Pages i-xxi La Botánica Cultural: Ars Medica, Ars Poetica....Pages 1-15 Front Matter....Pages 17-17 Ethnomedical (Folk) Healing in the Caribbean....Pages 19-28 Black Arts: African Folk Wisdom and Popular Medicine in Cuba....Pages 29-42 Afro-Caribbean Healing: A Haitian Case Study....Pages 43-68 Santería as a Healing Practice in Diaspora Communities: My Cuban Jewish Journey with Oshún....Pages 69-87 Dolls and Healing in a Santería House....Pages 89-113 Community Healing Among Puerto Ricans: Espiritismo as a Therapy for the Soul....Pages 115-129 Front Matter....Pages 131-131 A Particular Blessing: Storytelling as Healing in the Novels of Julia Alvarez....Pages 133-148 The Film Cure: Responses to Modernity in the Cinemas of the Caribbean....Pages 149-164 The End of the Line: Africa, Death, and Freedom in Caribbean Cinema....Pages 165-177 A Writer/Healer: Literature, A Blueprint for Healing....Pages 179-193 The Great Bonanza of the Antilles....Pages 195-201 “My Work Is Obeah”: An Interview with Poet/Painter LeRoy Clarke....Pages 203-209 Back Matter....Pages 211-236