Health, culture and ancestral roots: indigenous phytotherapy as a practice of historical care through the biography of plants

Abstract

This text brings a dialogue between a Pajé, from the Potiguara ethnic group, and an anthropologist about health and ancestral culture based on indigenous phytotherapy. It is an experience report of the course taken with the Pajé Amanacy, in the municipality of Baía da Traição, in Paraíba, together with a biographical account of the Pajé, whose history with the pajelança and the healing plants are recalled and brought to the gift. The dialogue between the experiences of the two authors traces a path in which the biography of plants governs the openings of the medical encounter between biomedicine and ethnomedicine, in official public health policies and how phytotherapy has been implemented in the Unified Health System (SUS). By following the history of the Potiguara, in Baía da Traição; the transformation of an indigenous woman into a Pajé, healer and teacher; An anthropologist's experience with the culture of the land, we reflect on the biographical portrait that plants present to us and how ethnomedicine mobilizes ancestral roots to the center of health policies.