The Indigenous Therapeutic Practices and the Official System of Health Care in Brazil

The Sanumá are an indigenous people who live in both sides of the border between Brazil and Venezuela. The paper intends to reflect on the inter-relations between the indigenous therapeutic practices of these people and the Brazilian official system of health care. It aims to discuss how this people are included in the process of health care and how the indigenous medicals experts deal with the Brazilian official health system. In the indigenous universe, we find a wide notion of a therapeutic procedure that encompasses the body and its life cycle, social networks, relationship with supernatural beings and nature. This procedure is not restricted to biological point of view, which is the main focus of attention of therapeutic Brazil’s official medicine. The indigenous therapeutic procedures are anchored on the knowledge of the shamans, on their songs and their ability to trigger others worlds. Those experts work with notions of health and disease processes related to other dimensions of social life such as war, hunting practices, puberty rituals and others.