Women in Pain: Gender and Morbidity in Mexico / Edition 1

by Kaja Finkler

Overview

Kaja Finkler explores the relationship between patterns of social interaction, cultural expectations, and gender ideologies. In Women in Pain, she examines the nature of sickness and its interaction with issues about gender and gender relations from both a historical and contemporary perspective.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780812215274
Publisher:	University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
Publication date:	01/01/1994
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Kaja Finkler is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Table of Contents

	List of Tables	ix
	Preface	xi
	Acknowledgments	xix
Part I	The Problem	1
1	Introduction	3
2	The Nature of Sickness	11
3	The Nature of Gender	25
4	Gender and the Nature of Sickness	40
Part II	The Context	51
5	Gender, Culture, and Society in Mexico	53
6	An Aggregate Profile of a Sick Population of Women	74
Part III	Women's Lives and Women's Pains	89
7	Margarita: A Women in Search of Individuation	91
8	Alicia: A Mother and a Mistress	114
9	Julia: A Drunken Husband	125
10	Rebecca: A Woman on the Verge of Disintegration	135
11	Juana: In Search of Dignity Amid a Garbage Dump	145
12	Carlota: From Proletarian to Housewife	153
13	Josefina: "All My Life I Worked Very Hard"	163
14	Susana: A Woman Who Ventured into the Public Domain	177
15	Norma: "I Have Found God"	183
16	Maria: Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire	191
17	Conclusion	203
	Bibliography	211
	Glossary of Spanish Words and Phrases	231
	Index	235

Editorial Reviews

"The author's knowledge of the population she addresses is evident on every page and in every description, as is her grasp of the complexity of issues surrounding the women whose pain she describes. . . . Life's lesions, a concept that Finkler introduces, is an intriguing symbol of how the wounds inflicted on people (in this case, women) during their lives become expressed in physical manifestations of ill health. . . . We can appreciate this book for its many insights and valuable contribution of life's lesions in understanding health and illness."

Journal of Political Ecology

"The author's knowledge of the population she addresses is evident on every page and in every description, as is her grasp of the complexity of issues surrounding the women whose pain she describes. . . . Life's lesions, a concept that Finkler introduces, is an intriguing symbol of how the wounds inflicted on people (in this case, women) during their lives become expressed in physical manifestations of ill health. . . . We can appreciate this book for its many insights and valuable contribution of life's lesions in understanding health and illness."—Journal of Political Ecology

From the Publisher