Bodily representations and health care in the Sai Baba movement in Argentina

PUGLISI RODOLFO

Alternative Therapies in Latin America: Policies, Practices and Beliefs

Nova Science Publishers

Lugar: New York; Año: 2018; p. 171 - 185

As opposed to the modern and secularizing vision that sees these phenomena as two separate domains, this paper assumes that there is a strong imbrication between health and sickness and the religious phenomenon. In this direction, this paper elaborates on the idea that every religious expression, within the notion of the person it sustains, establishes particular bodily representations (how the body is composed, how it works, etc.) which, in turn, delimit the type of therapeutic practices used to treat it. To problematize the links between religion, the body and the process of health/sickness/health care, this paper relies on the data obtained by the author through the ethnographic fieldwork carried out in a neo-Hindu movement, which has been present in Argentina for over three decades: the Sai Baba groups. Specifically, this paper focuses on the concept of the person and the bodily representations this group maintains, highlighting the close practical and symbolic relations said cult assumes between the body and the spirit, and between corporality and the world, characterizing it thus as a holistic conception of human being. From that point onwards, this paper analyzes the practices related to health and well-being, closely linked to this conception, and more relevant within the emotional and symbolic structure of the group: the therapeutic use made of the sacred ash (vibhuti).