The Spanish expression - la cultura cura (culture heals) - is an affirmation of the potential healing power of a variety of cultural practices that together constitute the ethos of a people. What happens, however, when cultures themselves are in jeopardy? What are the "antidotes" or healing modalities for an ailing culture? Healing Cultures addresses these questions from a variety of disciplines - anthropology, holistic folk traditions, literature, film, cultural and religious studies - bringing together the broad range of beliefs and the spectrum of practices that have sustained the peoples and cultures of the Caribbean.

Margarite Fernández Olmos is Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.

Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert is Professor of Caribbean and Latin American Literature at Vassar College.