Journal of Culture and Agriculture

How Religion, Race, and the Weedy Agency of Plants Shape Amazonian Home Gardens

Ethnographic research in Brazilian Amazonia documents a clear divergence: Evangelical Christians reject magico‑medicinal home‑garden plants that Amazonian folk Catholics (drawing on Afro‑Brazilian and indigenous traditions) embrace, a stance linked to Evangelicals’ attempts to distance themselves from practices indexed to racial and ethnic marginalisation. Many of these magico‑medicinal species are weedy colonisers that persistently invade domestic spaces, behaving as active agents that frustrate human efforts to avoid them.

Published

December 4, 2016

Journal

Journal of Culture and Agriculture

Authors

Kawa, N. C