The art of creating assemblages: materialities and temporalities among curanderos and curanderas in Lambayeque, Peru

• Grant number: 25/14498-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: December 15, 2025
• End date: December 14, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Theory of Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Fernanda Arêas Peixoto
• Grantee: Dé Leonel Soares
• Supervisor: Mary Weismantel
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Northwestern University, Chicago, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/09713-1 - Complex compositions: arts, techniques, and regimes of knowledge, BP.PD

Abstract

This project proposes a study of curanderismo in the northern coast of Peru, specifically in Lambayeque, the aim is to explore how the concepts of materiality and temporality intersect in the practices of curanderos and curanderas, which are carried out through the assemblages of things/beings constructed by the curanderos themselves. These assemblages materialize in what are called "mesas de curanderos", composed of heterogeneous objects related to past times, such as archaeological artifacts and contemporary items purchased or acquired by the Maestro.The composition of such tables involves a network of relations that unfolds in a more-than-human dimension, as it involves distinct participations that unveil processes of creation and transformation operated with the involvement of human beings - curanderos and curanderas - and other-than-human beings-such as the so-called gentiles, powerful beings that inhabit an underground world and a past time.Through collaborative work with curanderos and curanderas, the aim is to access theories that emerge from the practices and relationships between these individuals and beings, which can contribute to a reflective exercise that allows us to rethink concepts such as creation, transformation, past, present, and memory. (AU)