Abstract

NOGUEIRA, André Luís Lima. Diseases from witchcraft: eighteenth century Minas Gerais captaincy/Brazil and the imaginary of the diseases. Varia hist. [online]. 2012, vol.28, n.47, pp. 259-278. ISSN 0104-8775.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0104-87752012000100012.

This article aims to discuss the belief and the consensus around the idea shared among those who lived in Minas in the course of the eighteenth century that certain individuals could, by spells, cause a variety of ailments. Thus, the spell of illness, as it appears in the documentation compelling seemed very assiduous. I also tried to analyze how they were described such ailments caused by spells: stunting, pain, ligaments, among others. These were present both in the complaints brought to the attention of members of the clergy during the wanton ecclesiastical (documentation in the custody of the ecclesiastical archives of the Archdiocese of Mariana) as published in medical treatises, especially in the first decades of the 18th century.

Keywords : witchcraft; slavery; disease; Minas Gerais in the Eighteenth century.