Spirits with Scalpels: The Culturalbiology of Religious Healing in Brazil

The subject of spirit healing is one often relegated to sensationalist magazines and documentaries. Here Greenfield (anthropology, University of Wisconsin, emeritus) gives the results of nearly thirty years of research on the spirit healers of Brazil. He begins with incredible, documented, examples of surgery performed without anesthetic or sterile instruments. Having established that this really occurs, he then delves into the social and cultural bases for the practice. He notes that there are many spiritist churches, from those based on Catholic beliefs, to African religions to Pentecostals. Greenfield adds that most people only turn to these healers when modern medicine fails, but that, when healed, they often become members of the church in which they were treated. While Greenfield feels that there is a scientific explanation for the successes of these practitioners one of the most compelling chapters is about a colleague who did not recover but who still found in Spiritism what he needed to accept his untimely death. Annotation c2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)