Document Type
Review
Publication Date
1-22-2009
Description
Although the use of plants for treating supernaturally caused illnesses (e.g., soul loss, evil wind, witchcraft) has been documented in the Ecuador highlands, so-called magical plants have received much less focused attention than plants used for treating naturalistic disorders. Drawing on interviews done in 2002 and 2003 with 116 curanderos residing in the Ecuador highlands, this paper examines the characteristics of plants identified as magical, how they are used, and how the study of magical plants provides insights into the mindscape of residents of the highlands.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Citation Information
Cavender, Anthony P.; and Albán, Manuel. 2009. The Use of Magical Plants by Curanderos in the Ecuador Highlands. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine. Vol.5 https://doi.org/10.1186/1746-4269-5-3 PMID: 19161618
Copyright Statement
© 2009 Cavender and Albán; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.