Jurema's Children in the Forest of Spirits: Healing and Ritual Among Two Brazilian Indigenous Groups (Indigenous Knowledge and Development Series)

This in-depth study examines a number of levels: indigenous knowledge
and healing systems and how these have incorporated elements from other cultures, the practical uses of local medicinal plants, and the relationship between the environment and the belief system and how this strengthens ethnic identity and supports economic and political strategies for survival. It also explores constrasts between the two groups and their interrelationship.

The significance of this study extends far beyond these groups alone, and the book will be of interest to students of ethnicity, folklore, ethnobotany and epistemology. It shows how a threatened minority group can effectively help to shape its future and how small groups of disenfranchized individuals can recover their ethnic identity and human dignity.