Abstract

MUNERA GOMEZ, Mauricio. Health craftsmen: A concept for thinking about the work of rural healers in the North of Antioquia, Colombia. Anthropologica [online]. 2020, vol.38, n.44, pp.43-69. ISSN 0254-9212.  http://dx.doi.org/10.18800/anthropologica.202001.003.

This article develops the category of health craftsmen as a concept that refers to the men and women who, in towns of the north of Antioquia, Colombia, utilize hands, heads and hearts in order to offer a service to others, through the development of different practices for the care of life. This reflection is a result of the exercise of qualitative research based on the use of biographical and narrative methodologies for the construction of the life stories of rural healers. This article explores the following characteristics of health craftsmen: they are subjects of experience; they offer their services to the communities and the communities validate their skills; they perform their jobs in the home-workshop as a creation space; and they develop different practices for the care of life thinking about service and not about their transmission or transfer.

Keywords : health craftsmen; healers; practices for the care of life; life stories; northern Antioquia..

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