"I Was Born Just Exactly with the Gift": An Interview with a Voodoo Practitioner

THIS ARTICLE FOCUSES on the activities of a black woman who is a highly successful folk healer in a southwestern city. She is of particular interest because her clientele is multi-ethnic, and she counts anglos, Indians, and Mexican Americans as well as blacks among her patients. Mother D. was encountered during an ethnographic study of the medical system of low-income blacks.' A portion of a taped interview with her will be presented. Fieldwork was carried out in a small residential enclave near downtown Tucson, Arizona. It is a poor neighborhood, though by no means a ghetto or slum. The majority of informants have migrated to the city from rural areas of Arkansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Texas.