"The Spirits Drink Cassava Beer": The More-Than-Human Politics of Self-Help in Amazonian Guyana.

IF 1.5 3区社会学 Q2 ANTHROPOLOGY

Medical Anthropology Pub Date : 2025-02-17 Epub Date: 2025-03-13 DOI:10.1080/01459740.2025.2473500

Lewis Daly

引用次数: 0

Abstract

This article concerns vernacular practices of "self-help" among the indigenous Makushi people of Amazonian Guyana. Contrasted with "Western" self-care, the article examines mayu, a traditional system of communal work grounded in a collaborative ethic of "helping each other out." A convivial event, mayu is always accompanied by feasting, drinking, and the celebration of social relationships. This cooperative ethos passes beyond the human realm to harness the agency of nonhuman beings who participate in this shared work. The article moves on to investigate how shamanism and the use of plant-charms are integral in mediating these generative relations of shared selfhood.

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来源期刊

Medical Anthropology Multiple-

CiteScore

4.10

自引率

4.30%

发文量

期刊介绍： Medical Anthropology provides a global forum for scholarly articles on the social patterns of ill-health and disease transmission, and experiences of and knowledge about health, illness and wellbeing. These include the nature, organization and movement of peoples, technologies and treatments, and how inequalities pattern access to these. Articles published in the journal showcase the theoretical sophistication, methodological soundness and ethnographic richness of contemporary medical anthropology. Through the publication of empirical articles and editorials, we encourage our authors and readers to engage critically with the key debates of our time. Medical Anthropology invites manuscripts on a wide range of topics, reflecting the diversity and the expanding interests and concerns of researchers in the field.