Medicina tradicional no Brasil e em Moçambique

definições, apropriações e debates em saúde pública

Abstract

Traditional medicine has been gaining ground in global public health debates, as it has been widely disseminated for centuries. It is intended to draw parallels between Brazil and Mozambique, regarding the definitions, appropriations and debates in public health of traditional medicine practices. In Brazil, the field of traditional medicine blends with integrative, alternative or complementary practices in health, associating indigenous, African and European elements. In Mozambique, traditional medicine is the most  used by the population. In both cases, the notions of health and disease are approached as a local cultural appropriation, and the place of cultural resistance
of the traditional medicine’s against Portuguese colonization and the new globalization models of Western culture is discussed. Based on the analysis of the two countries, there is a theoretical-political discussion about the evolution and dissemination of traditional, complementary and alternative care practices, above all, problematizing these concepts based on the conceptions adopted by the World Health Organization and the different meanings names take on in different contexts. The appropriations of the discourse of traditional medicine for biomedical science, in terms of proof of its safety and efficacy, are critically discussed in the light of the modern scientific method.