NAS ENCRUZILHADAS DO SABER: O PODER DAS PLANTAS E SUA PRESENÇA NA MEDICINA POPULAR SUL-MINEIRA.

Plant and human life are entangled in an organic meshwork. Considering the understandings about them and the ways of knowledge associated with their practical application, plants emerge as a privileged subject to demonstrate the overlap of different ontologies making it possible to highlight the plurality of ways of seeing and being in the world. This essay aims to reflect about the power of plants and their presence in popular medicine experienced in the southern region of Minas Gerais; the chosen approach crosses with religiosity when discussing the practice of benzimento. The methodology contemplates a multi-sited ethnography based on a circuit followed throughout the research and the flows that connect the different locations. By focusing on the plants, the results point to their importance, especially in relation to the production of healing and blessing, by the overlapping of cultural, ritual, medicinal and food aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]