Healing in the Barquinha Religion

The article examines healing services in Barquinha churches, an Amazonian Christian religion with syncretic elements. It reviews three common anthropological approaches to healing in this tradition: focusing on participants' subjective and symbolic processes tied to the ayahuasca experience (called Santo Daime), analyzing ritual settings and bodily changes, and considering social relations in therapy. The author contributes ethnographic research, suggesting that healing encounters—where healer-spirits are incorporated in mediums—may echo symbolic motifs from participants' historical experiences of migration and rapid social change.

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Abstract

The article focuses on the healing service offered by Barquinha churches. The Barquinha religion is an Amazonian form of Christianity, with syncretic elements. The article surveys three recurrent methodological and theoretical approaches found in anthropological works on healing in the Barquinha religion, to which the author contributes with his own ethnographic research and analysis. On the one hand, analytical emphases are often located on the participants’ subjective and symbolic processes, in association with the ayahuasca experience. Ayahuasca—called Santo Daime by adherents—is the central sacrament of the religion, frequently implied in accounts of healing. Another common focus is on ritual settings and changing bodily dispositions. Thirdly, anthropologists have considered aspects of the social relations involved in the therapeutic process. This paper furthers reflections on social interactions during healing encounters. Such encounters typically involve healer-spirits incorporated in Barquinha spirit-mediums. The author suggests that the healing service may echo symbolic motifs associated with the historical experience of migration and rapidly changing living circumstances shared by many participants.