Solastalgia of Portuguese Benzimentos: A contemporary look at healing rituals.

Abstract (English)

Starting from the proposed term "solastalgia" and its impact on well-being, the objective panel develops the analysis of how popular Portuguese healing practices, namely called "benzimentos" act as mediators to reduce the feeling of distress. Benzimentos are healing rituals generally constructed using gestures, prayers and plants. Even though the origin of the discomfort or the identification of the enemy may be different, the objective of a blessing is always the extermination of undesirable energy and the restoration of the well-being of people, communities, animals or spaces (João de Pina-Cabral, 1989; Evans-Pritchard, 2004). According to Greenwood (2009), the set of languages ​​created by benzimento practices seeks to answer questions that go beyond human understanding, sometimes even helping to provide comfort during situations of uncertainty, as occurs when people experience the feeling of solastalgia.
Comparing urban and rural lands, benzimento rituals relate to their practices in specific ways, revealing how the health conditions of nature and the community shape the paths of spiritual coping and their interpretations of them. In this sense, the panel will address the idea of ​​shared evil, where a disease or a natural plague has a private life, alien to individuals, which attacks and can interfere in the identity of groups and individuals (Pereira, 2019). Also in line with the theme is the idea of ​​purity largely developed by Mary Douglas (1966), as human behavior regarding what is considered to be polluting is directly connected to the behavior of condemning everything that may confuse, spoil or contradict their cherished classifications.
The presentation will use data collected during the ethnographic work on blessings in Portugal carried out in the metropolitan region of Lisbon and in the schist villages of Serra da Lousã, started in 2023 and still in development, which is part of the ReSpell project (FCT/CRIA). In addition to the suggested panel, the ethnographic work also competed in the visual anthropology competition of the present congress, and could therefore be better appreciated through the audiovisual means made available.