# Care practices, popular knowledge, and health promotion among quilombola woman in Brazil

## TL;DR

This study explores how quilombola women in Brazil use traditional practices, community knowledge, and spirituality to promote health and well-being.

## Contribution

The study highlights the integration of traditional and biomedical health practices among quilombola women and their role in shaping community health technologies.

## Key findings

- Health practices include physical activity, healthy eating, and spiritual care, rooted in community and ancestral knowledge.
- Medicinal plants and home remedies are widely used alongside biomedical treatments, though often not recognized by health professionals.
- Quilombola women lead social movements to secure rights and territorial recognition, linking health to land and cultural identity.

## Abstract

Objective was to investigate the health practices and knowledge among quilombola woman in the ‘Baixada Maranhense’ region, to understand how these practices are transmitted, transformed, and integrated into well-being and community identity. |Qualitative study was conducted using a hermeneutic–dialectical approach in the Quilombola community of Estiva dos Mafras, Mirinzal, Maranhão, Brazil. Thirteen quilombola woman selected by snowball sampling until theoretical saturation. Data were produced semi-structured interviews period September–December 2024, audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The textual corpus was processed in software and thematically interpreted from a hermeneutic–dialectical perspective. Ethical approval was obtained in accordance with Brazilian regulations for social and human sciences research. Five major themes emerged. (1) Health promotion: walking, Zumba, and healthy eating anchored in community life and locally grown foods, alongside spiritual practices for emotional and psychological balance. (2) Intergenerational practices: dialogue as a vehicle for transmitting ancestral knowledge, alongside concern about its erosion, especially the decline of midwifery. (3) Integrative and complementary practices: extensive use of medicinal plants, teas, and “home remedies” combined with biomedical treatments, amid limited recognition by health professionals. (4) Agriculture and healthcare: family farming and extractivism as foundations for healthy eating, income, autonomy, and the inseparability of land, culture, and health. (5) Social movements and territorial legitimation: woman’s leadership in community associations as central to securing rights, infrastructure, and territorial recognition. Care practices among quilombola woman articulate body, spirituality, territory, and ancestry, constituting powerful community health technologies that coexist, often tensely, with biomedical care. Strengthening intercultural, intersectional, and territorially grounded health policies requires recognizing quilombola woman as key political and epistemic actors and integrating their knowledge into primary health care and broader health promotion strategies.