RESUMO
When Jamaicans speak of feelings, they literally mean feelings: physical sensations. Emotions, which emerge through social interaction, comprise an unmarked subset of feelings. They can affect the mind in ways that are actualized in behavior. Emotions affect other parts of the body as well, in ways that follow from an equilibrium model of health. Non-emotional feelings index bodily disequilibrium rather than causing it. An example of such is seen in nerves: a chronic feeling-complaint that comes about when the nerves, associated with perception and sensation, are weakened, and which entails visual dimness, jumpiness, and joint trouble. Although exacerbated by certain social situations, and often used in social commentary and manipulations, nerves is experienced and treated as a physical rather than a socially-based disorder. By studying the bodily dimension of nerves and other feelings we may gain insight into the ways in which the body serves as a source of culture (e.g., nerves culture) as well as into how culture influences bodily experience. We may broaden our understanding of the complex interplay between the bodily and mental dimensions of people's lives.
Assuntos
Emoções , Etnicidade/psicologia , Transtornos Mentais/etnologia , Relações Metafísicas Mente-Corpo , Percepção , Sensação , Atitude Frente a Saúde/etnologia , Comparação Transcultural , Emoções/fisiologia , Coração/fisiologia , Humanos , Relações Interpessoais , Jamaica , Medicina Tradicional , Transtornos Mentais/fisiopatologia , Transtornos Mentais/psicologia , Relações Metafísicas Mente-Corpo/fisiologia , Percepção/fisiologia , Psicofisiologia , Sensação/fisiologia , OcidenteRESUMO
Abortion is not condoned in Jamaica. Its meaning is linked to the meanings of kinship and parenthood, which are expressed through procreation and involve altruism and the assumption of responsibility for the well-being of others. Abortion subverts these ideals but indigenous methods for it are known and are secretly used. The inconsistencies between abortion talk and abortion practice are examined, and the structural functions of abortion (and of its culturally constructed, ideological meaning) are discussed. The distinction--and the overlap--between abortion as such and menstrual regulation is explored. The use of the culturally constructed 'witchcraft baby' syndrome to justify abortion is also investigated. Traditional abortion techniques follow from (and can illuminate) general health practices, which focus on inducing the ejection of 'blockages' and toxins, and from ethnophysiological beliefs about procreation and reproductive health, which easily allow for menstrual delays not caused by conception. The latter understanding and the similarity between abortifacients, emmenagogues and general purgatives allows women flexibility in interpreting the meanings of their missed periods and the physical effects of the remedy.