ePub Zulu Thought-Patterns and Symbolism by Axel-Ivar Berglund in History

Description

In southeast Africa; the power to heal is often associated with crossing borders; whether literal or metaphorical. This wide-ranging volume reveals that healers; whose power depends on the ability to broker therapeutic resources; also contribute to the construction of the borders they transgress. While addressing diverse healing practices such as herbalism; razor-blade vaccination; spirit possession; prophetic healing; missionary health clinics; and traumatic storytelling; the nine lively and provocative essays in Borders and Healers explore the creativity and resilience of the region’s healers and those they heal in a world shaped by economic stagnation; declining state commitments to health care; and the AIDS pandemic. This important book contributes to understandings of the ways in which healing practices in southeast Africa mediate divides between the wealthy and the impoverished; the traditional and the modern; the local and the global.