Wiktionary
n. A shop that deals in herbs and charms used especially by followers of Santeria.
Wikipedia
Botanica is a New York based band, founded in Los Angeles in 1999, led by erstwhile Firewater co-conspirator, keyboardist/singer Paul Wallfisch. Named for those mysterious stores stocking spells, potions and artifacts of ritual, Botanica features strings, musical saw, toy piano, omnichord, optigan and other odd keyboards and is known for a dynamic and eclectic mix of gypsy and punk-cabaret infused chamber rock. Members and collaborators have included Brian Viglione (of The Dresden Dolls), Jason Binnick (The Flesh, Hallelujah), Miriam Eicher (Hallelujah, Cardiac Move), Abby Travis, ( Beck, Elastica, KMFDM), Ivan Knight, ( Stan Ridgeway), Daniel Ash, ( Bauhaus, Love & Rockets), Frankie Infante, ( Blondie), Kid Congo Powers, ( Nick Cave, Cramps), Oren Kaplan, ( Gogol Bordello), Matt Flynn, ( Maroon 5), and Anne de Wolff, ( Calexico, Neko Case). Since 2002, the core of the band has been Wallfisch and guitarist/songwriter John Andrews, with bassist and vocalist Dana Schechter, ( Bee and Flower), recently taking over for Christian Bongers. Botanica has worked with various producers including Martin Bisi, Moses Schneider, Pete Min and Tamir Muskat. Malediction, the band's first album was released on Checkered Past Records in the U.S. and Cargo in Europe. Botanica toured nationally from 1999-2002, including support dates with 16 Horsepower, Super Furry Animals and Rocket From the Crypt. The band's subsequent albums have all been released exclusively in Europe, the last 3 through Germany's Rent A Dog label. The third album, Botanica vs. the Truth Fish, features a cover painting courtesy of renowned British artist Dexter Dalwood. Among TV and radio appearances in several countries, the band has taped a full concert for the legendary Rockpalast show on Germany's WDR. Berlin Hi-Fi, Botanica's 4th album came out in May '06 and was featured as a Visions Magazine "Beauty of the Month." Botanica has toured Europe twice a year since 2002, their last appearances in October 2007 presented by the German magazines Visions, Intro and Westzeit. Botanica contributed the track "Broken Bicycles" to the Tom Waits tribute album New Coat of Paint released on Manifesto Records in 2002 and also featuring Screaming Jay Hawkins, Carla Bozulich, Lydia Lunch and Sally Norvell accompanied by Paul Wallfisch at the piano. Botanica's music has been used in several films including Men Cry Bullets (Phaedra), and The Takedown(Dimension/Miramax). Botanica, (with ex- Jesus Lizard David Sims), is featured in Greg Pritikin's film "Dummy" (Artisan Entertainment), starring Adrien Brody and Milla Jovovich. Wallfisch also scored the film.
Botanica is a series of casual hidden object puzzle adventure games that is a combination of fantasy and science fiction. It was developed by Boomzap Entertainment and published exclusively by Big Fish Games. The games are available on PC and Mac platforms and with iPhone and iPad versions for the first title.
Botanica: Into the Unknown was the first game to be released on October 22, 2012. The sequel entitled Botanica: Earthbound was launched on December 14, 2013.
A botánica (often written botanica and less commonly known as a hierbería or botica) is a retail store that sells folk medicine, religious candles and statuary, amulets, and other products regarded as magical or as alternative medicine. They also carry oils, incense, perfumes, scented sprays (many of which are thought to have special properties) and various brand name health care products.
These stores are common in many Hispanic American countries and communities of Latino people elsewhere. As such:
Botánicas now can be found in any United States city that has a sizable Latino/a population, particularly those with ties to the Caribbean. The number of botánicas found outside of New York and Miami has grown tremendously in the last ten years.
The name botánica is Spanish and translates as "botany" or "plant" store, referring to these establishments' function as dispensaries of medicinal herbs. Medicinal herbs may be sold dried or fresh, prepackaged or in bulk.
Botánica almost always feature a variety of products used in Roman Catholic religious practice such as rosary beads, holy water, and images of saints. Among the latter, the Virgin of Guadalupe and other devotional figures with a Latin American connection are especially well represented. The Catholic Church allows herbal medicine but prohibits magic and other religions. However, most botánica have products associated with other spiritual practices such as candomblé, curanderismo, espiritismo, macumba and santería.
Alternative medical treatments found in botánicas are used to treat such varied conditions as arthritis, asthma, hair loss, menstrual pain and diabetes. There are also products that are designed to attract love, bring good luck and financial prosperity, deflect jealousy and so on.
According to researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago:
Most Latin American (Latino) immigrants to the United States participate in the dominant health care system. [...] Oftentimes, while utilizing this health care system, they continue to use their own culturally appropriate health care practices [...] In curanderismo, santería, and espiritismo, the practitioners assess the patient and, depending on diagnosis, prepares a healing remedy or a variety of healing remedies. A remedy is any combination of medicinal herbs, religious amulets, and/or other products used for the prevention, treatment, or palliation of folk and somatic illnesses. It is usually administered by the practitioner and may involve several sessions. In other cases, a curandero, espiritista, or santero will provide his/her client with a list of herbs and/or religious amulets needed for the remedy. The client will go to the botánica with this "shopping list," purchase the product(s), and return to the healer for preparation and administration of the remedy. If the remedy is to be administered over a long period of time, he/she may be instructed to administer the remedy at home.
An article from the New York Times describes how people in San Juan, Puerto Rico turn to botánica products for protection from severe weather:
Reaching for a pungent potion of solvent, wood sealer and perfume, Olga Santiago Ocana advises how to ward off bad spirits during hurricane season [...] Sandwiched between bundles of herbs, candles, beads and other paraphernalia of Santería, the Afro-Caribbean religion, Santiago tells a client to sprinkle the anti-hurricane elixir around the home. "Every time there's a hurricane, people rush to buy this", she says in her shop selling charms and potions in a region where hurricanes have shaped the local culture and psyche.
Besides being merely a place to obtain goods:
Botánicas serve as unique sites for the performance of religious culture. Their physical presence in an urban landscape serves as a quaint, mysterious cultural marker to those unfamiliar with their tradition and as an outpost to those who understand their purpose and seek community. Usually marked by vibrant signs (often placed on the sidewalk in front of a store) and packed from floor to ceiling with merchandise, botánicas create a highly visible cultural gathering place in the public sphere. In our ever-shrinking world, such visibility on the urban landscape can lead to an exchange of cultural ideologies and the spiritual traditions out of which they come.
In some cases, stores without a direct connection to Latin American spiritual and alternative medical practices, such as a shop catering to the practice of Vodou or to New Age beliefs, will use the term botánica as well.
At the same time, new combinations of spiritual traditions are appearing. Eastern spiritualities, such as Buddhism and Hinduism, are being added to African traditions. Some botánicas sell Buddhist and Hindu statuary alongside images of the orisha.
Botanica may refer to:
- Botanica (band), an American music rock group
- Botanica (Transformers), a character from Beast Machines
- Botanica (series), a series of puzzle adventure games
- Sectorul Botanica, a sector of Chișinău, Moldova
- Botánica, a Latin-American-Caribbean style shop specializing in articles of folk magic and similar merchandise.
Usage examples of "botanica".
In the meantime let us walk to the Botanica around the corner and see what we can do to save his life.
The bathroom counter was a clutter of jars and bottles: Alba Botanica lotion, cotton puffs in a glass jar, soap balls, a basket of dusty pinecones, a blue box of Tampax Super Plus, an LAPD coffee mug holding a toothbrush and a wilted tube of Crest.
I took my package and we stepped together onto Smith, the block Euclid claimed all belonged to Arthur: a smashed barbershop with an old glass pole, a botanica, window full of votive candles and folk art, with ghetto apartments above it, and four or five of the understated, sexy little bistros Berlin was meant to undercut.
Papaya King, a botanica, a tuxedo-rental shop, a check-cashing outlet.
So, while you guys are drinking and carousing, I will be in the occult bookstore and scanning the shelves at the Botanica to get answers.
The place was one of a run of glossy new restaurants and boutiques on the old Hispanic strip, dotted in among the botanicas and social clubs, and the shuttered outlets full of dusty plastic furniture and out-of-date appliances.