Médica da (e na) floresta: a trajetória de uma parteira, pajé e benzedeira Tembé Tenetherar

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to reflect on the importance of traditional knowledge and traditional healing practices among the Tembé Tenethehar indigenous peoples, in the northeast of the state of Pará, through the biographical narratives of a midwife, shaman and healer from Aldeia Ytuaçu. The exploratory research using the biographical method and oral history, had the data submitted to qualitative analysis, pointing to the importance that women assume in the community and in particular the midwife Francisca, whose trajectory reveals, the tradition of popular medicine that it is not always valued in the context of indigenous health care policies that have been implemented by the State and at the local level, thereby pointing to the risks of uprooting ancestral cultural values essential to the preservation of their traditions and identities.