Bad blood, spoiled milk: Bad blood, spoiled milk: bodily fluids as moral bodily fluids as moral

barometers in rural Haitibarometers in rural Haiti

Paul FarmerPaul Farmer

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Mexican SpiritismMexican Spiritism• Arose mid-19th C.—an era of political,

economic, & social turbulence– 1855-62 Liberal Reforms

• Industrialization & Laissez-faire capitalism• Proletarianization & Social differentiation

– 1910-17 Revolution & Land Reform• Spiritism branched out into rural areas• Social institutions & infrastructural support

were lacking• This generated cognitive models & symbolic

meanings related to illness etiologies

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Spiritist TeachingsSpiritist Teachings

• Recognize an imperfect world• Stress the status-quo & non-

involvement in social issues– Thus social mobility is not promoted

• Spiritualists lack power, thus gain it by controlling spirits– Women hold ritual positions within

spiritualism– It militates against social class

differences

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• Finkler: Spiritualism is a response to increasing class differentiation in Mexico– The individual removes themselves from

encounters with class differences– Joining is a quest for dignity & equality;

an escape from social conflict

• When the spirit is housed in the body of the medium, it can then complete its task on earth

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Culture & belief systemsCulture & belief systems

• Ojo (evil eye)• Envidia (envy)• Other examples• Susto (fright)—leads to soul loss• Aire (bad air)

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Humeral medicineHumeral medicine

• 4 Humors YELLOW BILEYELLOW BILE

FIREHOTDRY

EARTH AIR

WATERCOLD WET

BLACK BILE BLOODBLOOD

PHLEGMPHLEGM

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SYMPTOMSSYMPTOMS• CORAJE, SUSTO, ENVIDIA = HOT

EXPERIENCES– AVOID HOT FOODS (BEEF, ASPIRIN)

WORKING WITH HANDS• AIRE = COLD EXPERIENCE

– AVOID COLD FOODS (CHICKEN SOUP, ORANGES, ALKA SELTZER)

• PATIENTS SUFFER LISTNESSNESS, APPETITE LOSS, WITHDRAWAL FROM SOCIAL INTERACTION

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TREATMENTTREATMENTTO REGAIN HEALTH: BALANCE AMONG THE

HUMORS• LACK OF BALANCE (SOCIAL,

PSYCHOLOGICAL, SPIRITUAL) CAUSES ILLNESS

• CURANDEROS– CLEANSE BODY WITH EGG

• TO EXTRACT EXCESS COLD

– HERBS, CANDLES, MASSAGES, INCANTATIONS

• BRUJAS (WITCHES) CAUSE HARM

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ETIOLOGYETIOLOGY(Knowledge about causes of disease)(Knowledge about causes of disease)

• THE CAUSAL EPISODE IS LOOSELY DEFINED– THERE IS MUCH LATITUDE IN FINDING A

CAUSE THAT FITS PERSONAL FICTION– APPEARS AS A CONSEQUENCE OF AN

EPISODE IN WHICH THE INDIVIDUAL IS UNABLE TO MEET SOCIETAL EXPECTATIONS

– PROVIDES AN EXPLANATION FOR DEVIANT BEHAVIOR

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sustosusto• Is a culturally sanctioned avenue of escape

for an individual suffering from culturally-induced stress

• The behavior is not due to the character of the individual, but because she has been “asustada”

• Asustadas have impunity to engage in behavior otherwise considered offensive

• She can impose her own definition on a situation giving her deviant acts legitimacy

• Gives her control over interactions

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• Susto varies depending on gender—men & women are socialized differently

• Women have fewer mechanisms for reducing stress

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corajecoraje

• Coraje is not just an emotional state, but an illness that is part of Mexican women’s suffering

• It is a metaphor for reflecting on their condition as a woman in a patriarchal society

• For Esperanza, coraje expresses outrage at the violence done to her in the name of patriarchy

• Through coraje, she expressed & overcame the pain of violence, betrayal, being fracasada

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Paul farmer:Paul farmer:

• Is coraje & spoiled milk real?• “Somatization” – emotional

experiences become physically manifested

• Interpersonal strife, grief, anger, fright, shock, worry cause “bad blood” ((Move San)Move San)

• Most sufferers reported problems with spouses or family

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Spoiled milkSpoiled milk ( (Lèt gate)Lèt gate)

• Pregnant & nursing women are most vulnerable– Bad blood spreads to head, limbs, eyes,

skin, uterus– Bad blood causes breast milk to spoil– Bad milk is a motive for early weaning,

thus threatening the health of the infant

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• Bad blood & spoiled milk serve as moral barometers– They submit private problems (abuse) to

public scrutiny– Social problems & psychological

consequences are seen as the causes

• Farmer is critical of simplistic diagnoses, i.e., “folk illnesses”

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etiologiesetiologies

• Psychological and somatic classification of illness can not be dichotomized

• Farmer elicited women’s etiologies – Explanatory Models (EMs)

• Healer: “It happens mostly to women. If you are deceived, cheated, cuckolded, ostracized, or frightened, you must beware of bad blood”

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• Woman: “My life has been full of problems. A bumpy rash erupted all over my body. I felt terrible, I couldn’t sleep, I had no appetite, and I had diarrhea. I had a terrible headache. It wasn’t until I took the herbal remedy that I was free of it.”

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• “As soon as the child was born, I knew the milk was no good. It was weak, invaded by bad blood.”– Emotion causes the milk to go bad and

the milk is watery– If spoiled milk mixes with bad blood &

reaches the uterus, the woman can die– The milk can go to her head and make

her crazy

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• Woman: 2 of her 9 children died, one was only 11 days old– A bad person gave her a squash when

she was pregnant; the baby did not want to nurse

– When the baby died the squash came out—exactly as the mother had eaten it

• Healer: “Your blood turns to water and you feel weak. Soon you don’t even look human. The milk goes bad. You need a remedy to make new milk.”

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Explanatory modelsExplanatory models

• The context in which women complain is often one of unremitting struggle– When people are under severe nutritional,

political, & interpersonal stress– They attempt to replace direct

confrontation with a “safer” alternative

• EMs are thus a barometer of the gravity of social problems

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• Women are called upon to perform the herculean task of providing for their families—often alone

• Social relations & psychological status are more fragile in times of material & political stress

• Social & psychological stress is turned into publicly accepted meanings

• This is a culturally sanctioned means to express dissatisfaction

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Beyond personal…Beyond personal…• Interpretive medical anthropology has focused

on emic understandings of etiology• But it must take into account the political

economy• As women were forced into the labor market,

they were forced away from breast-feeding• The “spoiled milk syndrome” experienced an

alarming increase• This coincides with a deteriorating economy• Early weaning is reinterpreted as a benefit to

the child

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• Farmer: Anthropologists have not linked the emotions that result in somatic illness to larger systems of domination

• Bad blood & spoiled milk are related to poverty & women’s struggle for survival

• By submitting private problems to public scrutiny, they become powerful metaphors for warning against the abuse of women

• These are strategies chosen by powerless women to empower themselves in a gender, class, & ethnically differentiated world

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Brujeria (witchcraft)Brujeria (witchcraft)• Where lower classes lack access to legal

structures for dispute settlement• Where justice can not be obtained any

other way• The Bruja is a redemptive role for women

engaged in the unfinished struggle for liberation from women’s roles

• To assume the witch role in the name of resistance, women collectively take over a negative feminine myth & redefine it

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The inquisitionThe inquisition• Women resisted their powerlessness at the

hands of male authorities & laws• Women of all social categories resorted to

superstition to control men’s sexual authority

• Courts sided with husbands; women used witchcraft to reprimand husbands who violated the law– Aimed at reducing brutal treatment & infidelity

• Witchcraft empowered women since they had knowledge of sexual powers & could offer a service

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Pancho villa cultPancho villa cult

• Why a macho superhero?– Villa was a womanizer– Villa opposed soldaderas

• Chencha becomes Villa, a manly woman

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• Esperanza also seeks redemption– Her violated body is healed in the

Pancho Villa cult– The spiritist mass acts out the unfulfilled

promise of redemption• Women are absent from Mexican

history– Women collectively take over the Villa

myth & redefine it– They recover history & healing power

through imagination, rather than male-oriented militancy

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• Chencha becomes Villa, the protector of the nation, in a country where women are still marginalized

• Villa symbolized social reform, but the revolution is still unfulfilled

• Resurrecting Villa keeps the grievances alive

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Marianismo rejectedMarianismo rejected

• Esperanza & Chencha reject the suffering virgin image

• They write themselves into national history through the performance of healing

• History is now “ambiguously gendered”

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• Chencha appropriates power to right wrongs, punish evil

• Women act out relations of dominance & submission & gender transformation– Ruth begging for pesos– Grinding on the metate

• Villa imparts male power to them for the unfinished struggle of women

• Villa’s machismo is transformed into a defender of women against male domination

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esperanzaesperanza

Suffering RageRedemption