Early Modern Afro-Caribbean Healers
Early Modern Afro-Caribbean Healers
- Pablo F. GómezPablo F. GómezDepartment of Medical History and Bioethics and Department of the History of Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Summary
In the early modern Spanish Caribbean, ritual practitioners of African descent were essential providers of health care for Caribbean people of all origins. Arriving from West and West Central Africa, Europe, and other Caribbean and New World locales, black healers were some of the most important shapers of practices related to the human body in the region. They openly performed bodily rituals of African, European, and Native American inspiration. Theirs is not a history uniquely defined by resistance or attempts at cultural survival, but rather by the creation of political and social capital through healing practices. Such a project was only possible through their exploration of and engagement with early modern Caribbean human and natural landscapes.
Keywords
Subjects
- History of the Caribbean
- 1492–1824
- Afro-Latin History
- Science, Technology, and Health
