Healing with animals in a semiarid northeastern area of Brazil

Rômulo Romeu Nóbrega Alves (), Maria de Fátima Melo, Felipe Silva Ferreira, Dilma Maria de Brito Melo Trovão, Thelma Lúcia Pereira Dias, José Valberto Oliveira, Reinaldo Farias Paiva Lucena and Raynner Rilke Duarte Barboza
Additional contact information
Rômulo Romeu Nóbrega Alves: Universidade Estadual da Paraíba
Maria de Fátima Melo: Universidade Estadual da Paraíba
Felipe Silva Ferreira: Universidade Federal do Vale do São Francisco
Dilma Maria de Brito Melo Trovão: Universidade Estadual da Paraíba
Thelma Lúcia Pereira Dias: Universidade Estadual da Paraíba
José Valberto Oliveira: Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco
Reinaldo Farias Paiva Lucena: Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco
Raynner Rilke Duarte Barboza: Universidade Estadual da Paraíba

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, 2016, vol. 18, issue 6, No 12, 1733-1747

Abstract: Abstract This study presents information on the use of medicinal animals in a semiarid area of northeast Brazil, a region where animals have recognized importance in local popular medicine. The information on the use of animals for medicinal purposes was obtained through semi-structured questionnaires, complemented by free interviews and informal conversations. The results obtained showed that the residents of the area studied utilize a considerable richness of animal species (n = 42) for medicinal purposes, as occurs in other areas of Brazil’s semiarid region, demonstrating that zootherapy represents an alternative form of health care that is important to the inhabitants of the region. There is a need for new investigations on medicinal fauna, aimed at promoting the sustainable use of eventual medicinal species and preserving popular knowledge associated with the use of animal species.

Keywords: Caatinga; Ethnozoology; Medicinal animals; Zootherapy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-015-9715-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:endesu:v:18:y:2016:i:6:d:10.1007_s10668-015-9715-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10668

DOI: 10.1007/s10668-015-9715-1

Access Statistics for this article

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development is currently edited by Luc Hens

More articles in Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().