TY - JOUR
TI - Benzedeiras: Lights and Shadows of the Religious Healing Practice in Brazilian Folk Catholicism
AU - Siuda-Ambroziak, Renata
TI - Benzedeiras: Lights and Shadows of the Religious Healing Practice in Brazilian Folk Catholicism
AB - 
	This article presents field research-based reflections on the socio-cultural contexts of religious healing practices in Brazilian folk Catholicism performed by traditional local blessing-givers (bendezeiras). Recognizing both illness and healing as socio-cultural processes and religion as an important key to understanding Brazilian culture and society, I concentrate on depicting important characteristics of the benzedeiras’ practice, concentrating on “lights” (positive aspects) and “shadows” – adverse factors limiting the possibilities of intergenerational transmission in spite of the continuing popularity and symbolic effectiveness of benzedeiras’ religious healing in Brazil.
VL - 2019
IS - Volume 52, Issue 3
PY - 2019
SN - 0137-2432
C1 - 2084-4077
SP - 191
EP - 204
DO - 10.4467/20844077SR.19.014.11373
UR - https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/studia-religiologica/article/benzedeiras-lights-and-shadows-of-the-religious-healing-practice-in-brazilian-folk-catholicism
KW - religious healing
KW - popular Catholicism
KW - benzedeiras
KW - Brazil