A transversal Anthropology between Mozambique and Portugal: beyond the senses

Abstract

This review aims to present the book The smell of sheep’s blood, by anthropologist Paulo Granjo, presents, in the form of a report and short story, the results of several years of coexistence, work and systematic observation among traditional doctors from Maputo, Mozambique. A careful reading of Granjos’s book makes us realize that, renouncing the more conventional ways of presenting results of anthropological research, and following a practice that is also already consolidated in Anthropology, the author presents in greats details this world through which he traveled and still lives, highlighting practices and meanings socially shared by healers and their clientele, without, however, confuse his status as an outsider. Throughout the six chapters (distributed over ninety-six pages) and the Cultural Glossary added to the end of the book, Granjo makes us live with him the fears, suspicions, feelings and diverse emotions in which he immersed himself, especially during the healing rites to which he submitted in Maputo, and which culminated in the ritual sacrifice of a sheep tied to his back. The images made possible by the writing merge with the twenty-three photographs reproduced throughout the text, so that, although concise, the book ends up assuming characteristics of a dense description of the observed universe. Therefore, by reviewing this work, we hope to awaken in future readers both interest and recognition of the importance of this work for anthropology and Social Science.