_Botánicas_ is an exploration in text and photographs of spiritual
shops found in Latino neighborhoods throughout the United States.
Readers discover these marvelous spaces and their alternative
spiritualties that help patrons cope with the grind and challenges of
city life. Botánicas provide access to an array of invisible powers
and sell the ingredients to construct symbolic solutions to their
patrons' problems. The stores are bright and baroque, and the powers
they invoke come from religious traditions in Africa, Europe, Asia,
and the native Americas. In _Botánicas_, Joseph M. Murphy offers a
cultural history of the devotions on display and a reflection on the
efficacy of their powers to heal. Readers will come to see that the
goods and devotions of botánicas give their patrons--mostly Latino,
often immigrants--pathways for empowerment and transformation.
The name _botánicas_ comes from the "botanicals" for sale, herbs and
plants with healing powers. The pharmacopeia of botánicas can be
vast, and owners may know hundreds of remedies for treating problems
of health, wealth, and love. Botánicas vend herbs for upset stomach,
herbs for finding a job, and herbs for wooing back a wayward spouse.
Supplementing these medicinal and magical plants, botánicas sell
candles, holy statues, and tools for devotion to an array of spiritual
powers--Catholic saints, African gods, indigenous spirits, and Asian
divinities. Each spirit has its own ritual of petition, and botánica
owners can discern the proper offerings and prayers to help the
supplicant.
Murphy explains the religions of the botánica with subtlety and
sensitivity. He gives readers a deep sense of the contexts of the
stores and a sophisticated analysis of the religious traditions that
suffuse them. Visually fascinating, culturally rich, and religiously
profound, _Botánicas_ is a window into a world of beauty and power.
Les mer
Sacred Spaces of Healing and Devotion in Urban America
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781626745353
Publisert
2015
Utgiver
Vendor
University Press of Mississippi
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter