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Objective: In Colombia, there is a significant gap between the regulations related to the recognition of rights, inclusion, and mechanisms for the protection of children with disabilities and the implementation of the law. In this context, the aim of this study was to explore the social representations of cerebral palsy in mothers of children with cerebral palsy. Methodology: We collected information from mothers with children with cerebral palsy who consulted a neurorrehabilitation center in Cali, Colombia between January and February 2022 using the free list and the peer questionnaire. Results: For mothers, cerebral palsy is a movement disorder that, together with learning and communication difficulties, generates a great demand for care by the caregiver, accompanied by feelings of resignation in the face of the consequences of the brain injury and perceived social discrimination. Conclusions: The social representations on cerebral palsy reveal a negative and hopeless view of recovery, as well as resilience on the part of caregivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carnival, the origins of which are preChristian, is one of the most widespread festivals among the different cultures of the world, but its celebration has suffered prohibitions so that its characterization requires relying on generational testimonies. Our objective is to establish a qualitative methodology to reconstruct the celebration of the carnival festival in different territories and apply it to the case of the carnival of the Aragonese region “Cinco Villas”, which is composed of 31 villages. The research methodology consists of: contextualization of the territory, fieldwork for the collection of oral testimonies through life histories, focused interviews and discussion groups, and then cabinet and interpretation work. The results prove that the traditional carnival of “Cinco Villas” contains fertility and fecundity rites in the form of jokes and games with allusions to crops, land and herds. Although currently reduced to a children’s festival, the festival sleeps waiting for the political or economic elites to schedule its recovery for the social cohesion of the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Framework: The pregnancy has recognized as a condition that increases susceptibility to becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2 and developing COVID 19 in its most severe form, however little has been studied about the perception of risk regarding the disease in pregnant women. Research question/Goals: to analyze, from the perspective of anthropology and sociology of risk, the perception of the risk of COVID-19 during pregnancy in indigenous women. A qualitativeethnographic study was carried out in a Nahua indigenous community in north-central Mexico, in which ten women who lived through the experience of a pregnancy during the second and third wave of the pandemic were interviewed. The transcribed interviews were subjected to analysis from the Grounded Theory of Strauss and Corbin and triangulated with the observation records recorded in the field diary. Results: It was identified that the perception of risk becomes more complex depending on the social imaginaries that people have regarding reproduction and gender, which mainly contributes a construction of biological vulnerability, which is based on four axes: romanticization/demand of reproduction, the stigma built on the elderly around the disease, the real and symbolic distance from health services, and the invisibility of the risks that derive from gender demands within the domestic space. Final considerations: It is urgent to maintream intersectional perspective in health policies and strategies for risk containment, inequalities associated with ethnicity and gender are conditions that must be taken into account in risk communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article theoretically frames the issue of obstetric violence as epistemic injustice, drawing heavily from feminist phenomenological philosophy, within the general framework of narrative bioethics and the fight for sexual-reproductive rights. The first section deals with the concept of obstetric violence, emphasizing Latin America's pioneering role in its coinage and recognition, as well as its empirical-hermeneutical applications. In the second section, consideration is given to how the concept of obstetric violence has been analyzed through the lens of epistemic injustice (in its two versions: testimonial and hermeneutic), which has signified major progress in its systemic understanding and its biopolitical nature. The article's conclusions highlight the full empirical-theoretical relevance of the term, as a thick philosophical concept, despite existing tensions between the biosanitary (especially medical) sector and citizen demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational practices in the Latin American context, and in Argentine in particular, are crossed by segmentation processes that exhibit multiple actors and partially decentred formats of state institutions. Due to this complexity, its study requires sustained work in the territory, the application of comprehensive practices and knowledge built collaboratively between local and university actors. The present work aims to characterize some aspects of these educational practices in the framework of a neighborhood on the outskirts of the city of La Plata (CABA, Argentina). From an ethnographic analysis -and through observations and interviews-, a mapping of the territory is presented to identify actors and institutions involved in daily experiences, as well as the recognition of intervention processes of the State and civil society, and its scope. The results offered intended to offer some preliminary reflections on educational processes located in community contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article collects the results of an ethnographic fieldwork carried out in rural areas in central La Mancha. The main objective has been to study the symbolism of the popular, visual and decorative arts, called minor arts because of their opposition to the major or noble arts. Among these activities, the art of hooking the ropes of mules harnessed with harness or garnishes in simple or daily (black and white colors) and in luxury or silk (red and yellow albero) stands out. The field of symbolic anthropology has been used, as well as different ethnographic research techniques. The artistic activities analyzed constitute a form of language that, due to its symbolic content, evokes a place, a cultural tradition, links with other places in the national geography, such as the case of Andalusia, and values that are part of the social imaginary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I analyse the 'thick description' notion developed by Clifford Geertz to explore its scope and limitations. It is not my intention to refute or consider invalid the approach developed by Clifford Geertz; on the contrary, it is on his basis that I propose some corrections that are loose in his epistemological system. Some of his notions can be clarified, and others are wrong. I will discuss his (i) ontology, (ii) individualistic method, (iii) arbitrary notion of truth and (iv) the development of what a 'thick description is'. To analyse this concept in detail, I evaluate how it is operationalised in some of the author's texts. The analysis shows its limited explanatory capacity due to its idealistic approach to the concept of culture, which overlooks other approaches in anthropology. Finally, I conceptualise thick description by adding materialistic properties to it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chilean labor law is an institution built with the initial objective of mediating and balancing the relationship between workers and employers. Is this objective achieved? This problem is analyzed from the work experience of the judges in relation to the task they have arranged. This is an ethnographic study is framed from the Actor-Network Theory. The field work is carried out in the first and second labor courts of Santiago de Chile. As the main result, it is observed that there is a tendency to conciliation, which refers to the fact that there is a complex network of actants that promote the production of conciliations. This network is supported in laws, actors and affects. This is a problem, since there is a whole series of lawsuits that may end up favoring the employed party, end up forcing conciliations that prevent the realization of the initial spirit of labor law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to understand the meanings of the disease from the perspective of people with Diabetes Mellitus. This is an ethnographic study based on the Interpretative Anthropology of Culture. In the analysis of the data, the axes were constructed: Self-perception of a disease state; Meaning of the disease and cultural representations of care. The results showed an alternation between the sick and the non-sick state, which contradicts the biomedical precepts. As representations of care, allopathy, religion and family appeared. The whole scenario of understanding found has a decisive influence on the search for treatment and on the relationship that people establish with health services. In this perspective, it is necessary to understand the meaning of the disease and the different cultural representations of care, from the perspective of the person served, in this way, misunderstandings are avoided and it is possible to achieve comprehensive care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this brief essay we will try to approach hermeneutics, cultural anthropology and complex thought, to identify some elements around the indissoluble relationship between them. At the same time, we will see some of the characteristics of each of them that allow us to consider them both as general theories, as well as particular methods of study and epistemological proposal for the search for knowledge. All this in order to take into account its possibilities when facing a social problem within an investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El propósito de este trabajo es aproximarse etnográficamente a la construcción social del espacio en el barrio Puerto Madero en Buenos Aires (Argentina). Con este fin reconstruye las representaciones del espacio, las prácticas espaciales y los espacios de representación de sus comarcas públicas. Se analizan las transformaciones urbanas a partir de la puesta en marcha del proyecto de renovación urbana que configuró el barrio. El trabajo se apoya analíticamente en la triada conceptual de la construcción social del espacio acuñada por Lefebvre (1974). Así mismo, se sustenta en la reconstrucción etnográfica de las prácticas y usos cotidianos de transeúntes en los espacios públicos de Puerto Madero, en el rastreo de los imaginarios espaciales y estereotipos geográficos y en el análisis de los recursos discursivos desplegados por diversos actores en la configuración urbana del barrio. The goal of this work is to analyze the social construction of space in the Puerto Madero neighborhood in Buenos Aires (Argentina) from an ethnographic point of view. To this end, we will analyze representations of space (especially its public space) along with spatial practices. The analysis begins with the urban transformations brought about by the urban renewal project that gave the neighborhood its current configuration. Our results stem from application of Lefebvre's (1974), the conceptual triad of social construction of space to an ethnographic reconstruction of the daily practices and uses of passers-by in the public spaces of Puerto Madero, as well as the recognition of usual spatial imagery and geographic stereotypes, and the analysis of discursive resources displayed by various actors in the configuration of this urban neighborhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper to describe the features of the cultural configuration of the practice of Ninjutsu martial art in Chile. It aims to verify the differences among this kind of disciplines and the traditional formats of physical activity and sport in Western cultures. The fieldwork was developed from an ethnographic approach of corporal commitment, integrating myself as an apprentice of martial arts in a Ninjutsu Dōjō from Viña del Mar, Chile. The analysis used was cultural configuration analysis, a theoretical tool adapted for the description of cultures through the identification of its significance limits. The results of the study shows critical differences between the practice of this kind of noncompetitive martial art and the traditional physical and sports activity formats of western societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To understand the meanings that adolescents give to sexuality. Methodology: A qualitative study with an ethnographic approach. The study was conducted with 17 adolescent males, with an age range between 12 and 18 years, who have experience of life on the street, in Medellin, Colombia. The information was collected through interviews and field diaries. In the analysis, information was codified and categorized. Results: Sexuality for adolescents with experience of life on the street means having sexual relations; these take place due to arousal when, according to them, their hormones increase, or for survival, to meet the needs of everyday life. Conclusions: For street adolescents, sexual exchange with people of the same or opposite sex means sexuality; sexual relations are commonplace for them, they are mediated by taste, physiological need, love, consumption of psychoactive substances or for survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wet nurses are in charge of breastfeeding, education and care of other people's children. These women have had a role in society since ancient times. This figure acquired special relevance in Spain during 1830-1930 linked to the monarchy. The contract for their services had as a cause health problems of the biological mother, but it became a privilege. The choice of these women was based on examinations carried out by doctors and priests, which guaranteed good physical and moral health. Northern women began to be sued, especially those from the Pas Valley, who migrated to urban areas, such as Madrid. These women were considered to be healthier and more suitable for this trade due to their robust physical condition and their life in nature. The contract had an implicit salary and was regulated by law (1904 Child Protection and Royal Decree 1910). Their services were carried out in houses of foundlings and in the homes of families, including royalty. It is worth noting the importance of the wet nurse, in a historical period with high infant mortality rates, as they encouraged the survival of newborns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work had as objective of demonstrating that the concepts raised by Cultural Anthropology are beneficial to Early Childhood Education, favoring the conviviality of different people in the school environment, the valorization of all cultural expressions, and consequently adding values to the development of the child. It is noticed that in the school environment the elitist culture is predominant, causing a cultural and social prejudice, in this way the proposal presented leads to a change from the pedagogical practice to the coexistence among the children present in the place. The methodology used for the elaboration of this, one was the bibliographical review and the field research, with the questionnaire technique. The research was carried out in a kindergarten, in the city of Franca - SP, a private institution that also agreed to the program "Mais Creches" (where the city hall, in special situations, buys form the private school systems the vacancy needed to meet the demand of children), finally the data obtained by the research were analyzed qualitatively. At the conclusion of this study, we could conclude that Cultural Anthropology is an instrument favorable to pedagogical practice, capable of combating prejudice in the school environment, and valuing the individuality of each student. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To understand the social representations regarding breastfeeding among women in rural and urban settings in Jalisco (Mexico), between 2016 and 2017. Materials and methods: Qualitative phenomenological study. Women living in rural and urban communities in the XIIth Health Jurisdiction, Tlaquepaque Center, Jalisco (Mexico), identified through key informants, were interviewed in focus groups, audio-recorded and semiotically analyzed until the technical saturation was reached in the following categories: meaning, meaning-generating players, and wishes pertaining to breastfeeding. Results: Six focus groups of 14 women living in rural areas, aged 29.4 ± 7.8 years, and 9 women living in urban areas, aged 27.3 ± 7.1 años. Qualitatively, meanings were identified in the two settings and were categorized as myths, breastfeeding techniques, and infant growth and development. The following meaning-generating players were found: healthcare and hospital staff, social network, family, God, and community. In terms of wishes, women described the benefits of breastfeeding for themselves and their infants. Conclusions: There are differences and similarities in social representations regarding breastfeeding depending on the geographic context where they are developed; the elements and players that make them up determine the initiation, maintenance or termination of breastfeeding, and must be considered as part of health promotion and education targeted to women and their environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To know the barriers in the process of building family cultural care for the child in the hospital. Methodology: This is a qualitative study with a cross-cultural theoretical reference of Madeleine Leininger, called Theory of Diversity and Cultural Universality of Care, and with a methodological reference of the ethno-inference. It was developed in 2017 at the pediatric unit of a university hospital in the south of Brazil, through non-participant observation, participant observation and interview with 15 family caregivers of hospitalized children. The data was coded, classified and scrutinized to identify the saturation of ideas and similar or different patterns; also, it was recoded and the theoretical formulations and recommendations were performed. Ethical aspects were followed, according to the Resolution of the National Research Ethics Council 466/2012. Results: The data showed as a barrier the need for hospitalization as a factor of family vulnerability, control of the unit's health team members, hospital norms and routines, and the need to transgress as a manifestation of family care. Conclusion: Cultural care is a process that aggregates knowledge and can be considered a new paradigm for the accomplishment of nursing care by providing the mutual growth and construction of new knowledge, an affective, reflexive, human and empathic relationship between the nurse, the child and the family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a review of the anthropological models of the Context Group, and advancing towards a critique of the model of "limited goods," the author argues that the Beatitudes should be understood as proclamations of grace, not of honor; as an expression of joy at unlimited goods, not as aphorisms of reputation and dignity. The mercy enunciated in Mt 5:7, therefore, is an unlimited gift, a grace not framed in the retributive conditions still present in the first Gospel, because this would not correspond to the free vision of the God Abba that Jesus proclaimed. The theological reflection at the end of the article points out this distinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

David B. Waterhouse (1936-2017) was a Professor emeritus, Japanese studies scholar, and humanities polymath. Educated to concert pianist level, he graduated in Western Classics, Moral Sciences, and Oriental Studies from the University of Cambridge. It is there where during his freshman year he had attended for first time a live jūdō demonstration, and had decided to start his jūdō career. Professor Waterhouse would eventually join the University of Toronto, where he would spend the rest of his professional career as an educator and scholar. David aptly understood and taught jūdō as it was meant by its founder, i.e. as a form of pedagogy striving for both physical and intellectual development. Consequently, his academic jūdō classes at the University of Toronto's Department of East Asian Studies attracted an enthusiastic crowd of students. Professor Waterhouse's scholarly legacy is vast, showing a remarkable breadth in topics which he surveyed, investigated and mastered, but he was particularly proud of his magnum opus, i.e. a two-volume catalogue of woodcuts by Japanese artist Suzuki Harunobu published in 2013. The manuscript of his book on jūdō's cultural and technical history, unfortunately, remains unfinished due to his untimely passing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The objective of the study was to understand the meaning nurses afford to the care of patients who are on the verge of death. Method: Interviews were carried out with 23 nurses who have cared for dying patients and participant observation was done at a third level hospital in the city of Medellín (Colombia). The data were analyzed through an inductive process to establish categories and subcategories. Results: Caring for a patient who is on the brink of death implies an internal conflict, since nurses believe that showing their feelings in the face of death is unprofessional. However, when they fail to do so, they sense their professional practice is less humane. Discussion: When a patient is about to die, nurses evaluate how professional it is to show their feelings and how inhumane it is not to do so. Conclusion: Caring for a dying patient calls for exercising the humanistic aspects of the profession that must be accepted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the understanding of the educational process of the 'Buen Comienzo' program, in the gestation and first year modality, as an input to expand upon the learning about education for health in general. This is part of the results of a qualitative research, under a hermeneutical approach and an ethnographic orientation. The field work was carried out through participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and the review of institutional documents. Results showed that, although the program seeks to privilege the exchange of experiences and recognize the knowledge and perceptions of families regarding the upbringing --in a dialogical relationship with the disciplinary knowledge of educational agents-- educational practices privilege and legitimize scientific biomedical knowledge over the knowledge of significant adults. This came to show its cultural weight, materialized in strongly classified educational processes which are framed according to the proposal of Bernstein, which guided the analysis of the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence and integration of qualitative research to the biomedical research protocols has become increasingly relevant, due to the importance of cultural anthropology. The particular case of ethnography acquires even more preeminence with regards to the definition of risk for the research subject. This paper presents the main characteristics of ethnographic research to be evaluated by a research ethics committee and defines a series of recommendations for risk assessment for subjects undergoing this type of study. The members of Research Ethics Committees must take ethnography into account in order to fully perform their duties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we narrate and analyze the historical configuration that a group of female workers and a collective of social organizations made about the Hospital San Juan de Dios (HSJD) and Instituto Materno Infantil (IMI) in Bogotá, Colombia, within the neoliberal crisis in health. Our ethnographic research intersects the Latinamerican traditions of collaborative ethnography and historic anthropology. The research was conducted in two sites. In the first one, from 2005 until 2015, we had informal conversations and conducted workshops and semi-structured interviews with IMI workers. The second site corresponds to our participation in the deliberations of the Mesa Jurídica por el San Juan de Dios (2008-2009), which aimed to elevate a class action to defend the hospitals. We found that workers and social organizations made use of the colonial origin of the hospitals and their institutionalization as center of welfare policies in the country as a way to highlight their patrimonial, historical, educational and social importance. This historical construction critiques efforts that negate or transform the public character of the hospitals and helped them carry on different actions to denounce the neoliberal health care reform as the cause of the hospitals most important crisis and closing. The different actors denounce the change in the hospitals-state relationship, which transited from being central for the development of social policies to reflecting a symbolic and material elimination of the hospitals. Such transition benefits the market interests established by the neoliberal model [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) generates debates and confrontations among diverse social agents with different conceptions of normality, health, the individual and the social. In this scenario of controversy, parents have tried to improve the living conditions of their children through a number of models of social participation in health. Using a qualitative ethnographic approach, fieldwork was carried out from 2013 to 2015 with the purpose of analyzing the universe of organizations regarding ADHD in Spain as well as other individual parenting initiatives with collective repercussions. The work seeks to identify the different relationships with expert knowledge in existence and the models of knowledge circulation that take place within those relationships, focusing on the way they configure discursive stances, establish collective dynamics, and develop actions. The disputed character of ADHD is evidenced in models more complex than that of the expert/layperson duality, as well as in new strategies of production and collectivization of knowledge facilitated by the Internet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Nurses give the meaning to their daily work and its comprehension permits the design of proposals oriented to promote quality, humanization and service management. The objective was to understand the meaning that nurses give to their daily work. Materials and Methods: qualitative study with ethnographic approach; groups interviews were conducted and a field day book was done. Results: Nurses must take ownership of the nurse department, which means to achieve an integral care and hold up the department. The weight of the department is to understand as the ability to hold up guilt, problems, interactions, indicators and protocols without enough time. Discussion: Health care creates motivation, which is a feeling capable to provoke, maintain and manage the behavior to a common objective; the work weight has forced the nurses to spend less time to the health care, which lead them to feel guilty, exhaustion and stress. Conclusions: The task of nursing means a burden when they feel that they must take care of tasks are not of her professional competence or that are imposed by limiting their autonomy. Holding up work weight, lead nurses to the demotivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to provide a broad view of the Turkana tribe of the Ilemi Triangle in northwestern Kenya, especially regarding the way the members of this nomadic ethnic group understand and shape their own construct of health and disease. It is based in an ethnographic study carried out in July and August 2014, including participant observation of 15 villages of the Turkana tribe, formal interviews and indepth interviews carried out with the collaboration of two translators of the tribe and a nurse. Field notes as well videos and audio records were captured and transcribed for later analysis. Among the primary results of this study, it should be highlighted that the concepts of both health and disease differ greatly from the western approach that external projects bring with them a priori and it is likely that the lack of adherence to these projects is related to the scant cultural knowledge regarding such constructs on the part of the health professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about food is more accessible and democratic. Food trends are inspired by several factors but are always associated with fashion, media, and as a way to reflect a lifestyle. Recently, large Brazilian cities have been invaded by a new trend: Mexican paletas, which actually are not "Mexican." These ice cream pops have significant organoleptic qualities due to, among other factors, the high sugar content and, in some cases, fat. The gourmet and natural design of this delicacy, its cost, and nutritional properties are unique and apparently a passing fad. This study aimed to discover the composition of these products, based on the nutritional information available on the websites of the producers as well as their peculiarities and conceptions. Despite the natural and gastronomic connotations, high-calories, fat (especially in Brigadier flavor stuffed version), and high amounts of sugars were found at an average per unit of 207.2 Kcal; 38.4 g of carbohydrates; 3.9 g of protein, and 5.3 g of fat. A high emphasis on Mexican culture, religiosity, and visual identity fill the websites of the surveyed products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to understand Eugenio Barba's concept of Theatre Anthropology, this article identifies the differences between Theatre Anthropology and other Anthropology studies, considering first and foremost how the complexity of each category and the constant dialog does not allow establishing boundaries based on evidence, which frequently leads to confusion among one another. Furthermore when explaining "what Theatre Anthropology is not" can lead to indirectly identifying what Theatre Anthropology is. The order in which the concepts of other anthropologies are exposed is neither random nor chronological. It starts from the most distant antropologies Theatre Anthropology, to later address the most similar and then reaching Eugenio Barba's Theatre Anthropology and its significance as an "independent" discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objetive: To analyze the cultural conceptions of the welfare concept by people with chronic disease and the health professionals with the purpose of identifying coincidences and discrepancies that could help or block the health promotion process and health care. . Materials and Methods: An anthropological cultural study was carried out with 40 people suffering chronic disease and 51 health professionals from Guadalajara (Mexico) selected through purposeful sampling. Free-listing and pile sorts techniques were used. Consensual analysis, hierarchical clustering, and multidimensional scales were applied. Results: There was higher consensus in the conceptualization of the term welfare from people with chronic disease than from the health professionals. The coincidences between people with chronical disease and health care professionals included a comprehensive view and the components of the concept: having a job, money, health, calm and happiness. However, for people with chronic disease, welfare is related to their personal health care and the discipline it implies as well as family life and friends, plus the support of God. While for the health professionals the construct is associated with comfort, confidence, stability, security, harmony, love besides a positive attitude. Conclusion:There are more discrepancies tan coincidences in the cultural conceptualization of the welfare construct in a sample of peole with chronical disease and health professionals. It is important for both actors to know the other point of view in order to generate more successful health promotion and care programs as well as disease prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim was to produce a synthesis of the Brazilian scientific production on the use of ethnography in nursing research in the period 2009-2013. This is an integrative review, whose question is, ‘How has ethnography been used in nursing research?’ The search was carried out in the LILACS database. The research corpus comprised seven articles. At a later date, they were submitted to thematic analysis, and two categories emerged. We observed that culture influences the people’s lifestyles, which include their preferences, feelings and the meanings they attribute to their experiences. The appreciation of experience and meanings attributed by the clients in the health/disease process enables to bring the health professional and the client together, in order to practice culturally congruent care. The acknowledgement of the cultural status is essential for integral and significant nursing care, where the ethnographic findings contribute towards providing the description of a local reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article situates events and processes that occurred during the 1970s, relevant for the development of anthropology in Portugal. It is based on both information already available as well as lived experience. Because at the time anthropology was not yet an entirely institutionalized discipline, we propose that this period constituted a phase of intellectual mourning provoked both bv the shock of colonial emancipation and bv a shifting scientific paradigm (abandonment of the search for harmony or egalitarianism, in favor of new focuses on conflict and inequality). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that mainly affects adolescents and young women. Although the relationship with body and food is always present when addressing the disease, as it is conceived as psychiatric disorder, often their understanding is limited to the field of mental health. Through an ethnographic study with adolescents in treatment for anorexia nervosa in a public health reference service in the city of Rio de Janeiro, it is intended to meet everyday functioning of the institution and demonstrate as understanding the disease can be enriched by other disciplinary viewpoints and by adolescents themselves. This paper presents a first approach to the field and adolescents surveyed. It also deals with the construction of the field of research and the "conversion" of nutritionist in anthropologist. Such a conversion was needed for, among other issues capture the tension within the health service chosen among health professionals, families and adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

the purpose of this paper is to show that the social sciences and humanities normally overlook the causal effects made by the material environment and its artifacts in the set of tangible and intangible assets that constitute human culture. I argue a vision of culture as causal arrangements where there is no difference between material culture and symbolic culture. Such vision of culture can then lead us to be able to accept artificial environment as an ecological niche, in which there is a coevolution of technical environment and human beings. This transforms the artifacts networks into a human habitat in which human practices can occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to understand the representations and meanings about the fatherhood of young men, through analysis the social codes of the sociocultural context in which they are inserted. This is a qualitative research. The young men were interviewed. Thematic analysis was conducted and data were analyzed by sentences. The meanings of fatherhood are tied to the representations and to the practices built on the body, the sexuality and the reproduction inside a logic that operates with the own values of the family and work of the sociocultural context. It is looked, so, to make the existent repertoire rich on the understanding of the senses of the fatherhood between young men and, for this road, to contribute to the establishment of public policies that effectively dialogue and that bases on the logic that orientates his practices around the sexual and reproductive life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from the classical notion of culture, this article examines the substantivation of culture and its historicity. Using the contribution of E. Cassirer and J. Rüsen, a delimitation of the scope of the relationship between history and culture is sketched by proposing both a conception of historical culture and a typology of historical consciousness of the human rational agent. Making use of contemporary 'cultural studies' and of cultural anthropology's approach, the analyses tends to stipulate the proper meaning and scope of the historical culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to discuss the idea that certain phenomena, which relate to the notion of culture in anthropology, are paramount in understanding some of the causes of international emigration. In order to achieve this I will use three concepts: identity, local structures of desire and imaginary geographies. With these I intend to complement comprehensively other research approaches on migration based on the study of economic or macro-sociological causes. The fourth contribution I wish to outline regards the role of ethnography in its three types - experiential, thick description and multi-sided - as a suitable means for studying international migration. This reflection is based on the results of nearly five years of research on international migration in the city of Pereira -and its metropolitan area-, known in Colombia for its high rates of emigration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To describe the cultural dimensions that might help or hinder dengue prevention in two Mexican localities having different experiences related to this disease. Methods. A cognitive-cultural anthropological study was conducted involving the participation of 160 adults selected through purposeful sampling. The techniques of free lists and pile-sorting were used for investigating terms associated with the concept "dengue." A consensus analysis was carried out by the factoring of principal components, hierarchical cluster analysis, and multidimensional scaling. Results. Greater consensus was observed among participants from the population having more historical experience with dengue--Santiago Ixcuintla, Nayarit--as well as more structured cultural and complex dimensions than in Guadalajara. In the latter case, participants showed a more fragmented conception of dengue, with insufficient information on its symptoms, mechanisms of transmission, and vector reservoirs. Three cultural dimensions were identified as hindering dengue prevention: confusing and insufficient information, placing responsibility for prevention on other people or on public agencies, and excessive confidence in fumigation as a preventive measure. Conclusions. These obstacles will need to be taken into account in the design and implementation of future prevention campaigns, disseminating information that explains the risks of fumigation and the importance of citizens and authorities jointly participating in the search for a comprehensive and sustainable solution to the dengue problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tries to recover the cultural meaning and the literary function of the presence in Mk 1:21-28 of two apparently unrelated elements: the authority of Jesus' teaching and his power to exorcize unclean spirits. Anthropological research about possession and exorcisms in pre-industrial cultures allows us to think that the conjunction of these two elements reflects the demand that these cultures impose to religious innovators of legitimating their proposals with the exhibition of extraordinary spiritual powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This was an ethnographic investigation with the aim of comprehending the meanings of the trauma experience among multiple trauma patients. The following techniques were used for data collection: direct observation, semi-structured interview and field diary. Biographical narratives were obtained from eleven trauma victims, and ten relatives as secondary informants. The data analysis considered the set of data of each participant and all data of all subjects, searching for differences and similarities. The meanings attributed to the trauma experience are associated with interrelated feelings of fear, insecurity, anger, vulnerability and suffering and to the meanings of quality of life that converge to valorize health and work appreciation and support by social networks. This analysis shows that the concepts and experiences of the trauma are conditioning factors of the health-disease process and they are essential in planning public health actions to meet the needs of individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The attention and action in the process of health / disease care is a key that characterizes his role as nurse and health worker. In particular the study of health seeking behavior and observation of the strategies of patients (actors) on health and disease and its action as they or their family sick. This article is a reflection through a review of authors in other anthropological work on the articulation of cultural care in biomedical practice. Biomedicine holistic limited compression of the disease conception of the person as a whole than the sum of the component parts. Often the nurse plays in their practice a moral world of values of the society to which he belongs which is materialized in practice. To discuss the influence of culture in the health / disease / care, we must define what is meant by culture. It must take into account the relationship between subject and culture particularly in relation to the socialization of the subject. Hence the importance of the existence of a shared belief system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of the health/disease/healthcare process from the socio-medical aspect is the field of the medical anthropology. In Mexico, this medical specialty had its origins at the end of the 19th century. Since then, many educational reforms occurred associated to the political processes and the recognition and better understanding of Mexican pluricultural society; allowing expansion, diversification and consolidation of medical anthropology as an specialty. This review presents the historical evolution of the academic courses on this field, the educators that influenced its consolidation, and the current situation of the available academic programs on medical anthropology. The diversity of specialties from those health sciences that are associated to medical anthropology is emphasized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We combined ethnographic investigations with repeated ecological transect surveys in the Dzanga-Sangha Dense Forest Reserve (RDS), Central African Republic, to elucidate consequences of intensifying mixed use of forests. We devised a framework for transvaluation of wildlife species, which means the valuing of species on the basis of their ecological, economic, and symbolic roles in human lives. We measured responses to hunting, tourism, and conservation of two transvalued species in RDS: elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis ) and gorillas (Gorilla gorilla ). Our methods included collecting data on encounter rates and habitat use on line transects. We recorded cross-cultural variation in ideas about and interactions with these species during participant observation of hunting and tourism encounters and ethnographic interviews with hunters, conservation staff, researchers, and tourists. Ecologically, gorillas used human-modified landscapes successfully, and elephants were more vulnerable than gorillas to hunting. Economically, tourism and encounters with elephants and gorillas generated revenues and other benefits for local participants. Symbolically, transvaluation of species seemed to undergird competing institutions of forest management that could prove unsustainable. Nevertheless, transvaluation may also offer alternatives to existing social hierarchies, thereby integrating local and transnational support for conservation measures. The study of transvaluation requires attention to transnational flows of ideas and resources because they influence transspecies interactions. Cross-disciplinary in nature, transvalution of species addresses the political and economic challenges to conservation because it recognizes the varied human communities that shape the survival of wildlife in a given site. Transvaluation of species could foster more socially inclusive management and monitoring approaches attuned to competing economic demands, specific species behaviors, and human practices at local scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was carried out between January and April 2008 with 14 caregivers of children younger than 5 years residing in Tizimín city, Mexico. It aimed to understand the social representations of eating and the Programa Oportunidades [Opportunity Program] held by caregivers taking into account their social and cultural context. This qualitative investigation with an ethnographic approach was based on participant observation and semistructured interviews. Two empirical categories emerged: 1) feeding and 2) an aid. The first refers to the caregivers' representation of eating patterns of children younger than 5 years and the second reveals that the program is considered an aid, which favors and helps caregivers to meet part of their needs. The study achieved the proposed objectives since it enabled us to understand caregivers in the complex task of feeding these children and also to propose strategies in several spheres to improve infant nutrition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From personal narratives, which were developed by nursing experts, a textual analysis. In the theoretical section the reader is on the keys of a qualitative, inductive and ideographic and presents the reflective path followed from autobiographical fragments on the socialization process by which these professionals have developed. The working hypothesis started from the declarative or episodic memory for the recovery of experiences and events, from the reproduction of what has been experienced in the initiation stage. During the work revealed the presence of an insistent forgetting that gave way to the track mnemic, absences as a sign that open a path towards ethnographic literature. Some examples of this neglect by presenting a great narrative. This is the virtue that helps the time to live as a story and it's time settings. Through these texts shows that during the initial stage of practice, there are unique processes that are similar to those in the professional integration. The materials are certainly worked vivid texts, generating space for the narrator's own self, as for the analytical ethnographer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

La presencia de un sistema ideológico de creencias y expectativas previas influye y puede modificar en la adopción de otras estrategias o acciones dentro del proceso de salud/enfermedad /atención. Esta situación adquiere características especiales dentro del núcleo de la relación médico/paciente. La biomedicina constituye una de las formas institucionalizadas de atención de la enfermedad y, en gran parte de las sociedades, ha llegado a ser (el modelo médico hegemónico) identificada como la forma más correcta y eficaz de atender el proceso salud/enfermedad. De la importancia de la subjetividad en la enfermedad y del manejo de la misma por el individuo deriva la búsqueda de nuevas alternativas y terapias para dar respuesta a las necesidades y no solo la cura de la enfermedad, y que a través de la biomedicina no ha sido encontrada. Esta opción tampoco está exenta de la exposición de una medicalización. De ahí la importancia de su estudio junto a sus relaciones con la medicina hegemónica actual porque los usuarios de las medicinas alternativas y complementarias puede que tengan una enculturación en la biomedicina, y por tanto alguna expectativa también de "cientificidad" respecto al uso de esas terapias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aimed at understanding the patients' experience with oncologic radiotherapy. The anthropological interpretative approach and the ethnographic method guided the investigation. Ten patients took part in the study. They were of both genders, within the age range from 34 to 80 years old and monitored during radiotherapy treatment. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, participative observation and medical records. The analysis of the respondents' statements allowed for the identification of the units of meaning: The encounter with radiotherapy, the body as a vehicle for radiotherapy action and alternative healthcare practices that relieved the effects of the treatment. We understand that the oncologic radiotherapy experience meant the need to submit to a therapy with a characteristic of a poison-drug, which causes fear, but was necessary, whether the goal was cure or even cancer survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is the result of an ethnographic research based on interpretative anthropology. It aims to interpret the meanings of alcohol misuse in families from a poor Venezuelan community. Twenty members from six families participated in the study. The results show differences between meanings children and parents held regarding alcohol consumption. Children held a more positive view, whereas mothers presented the lowest acceptation of alcohol consumption. Meanings were more convergent than divergent, which allowed the identification of the following units: excessive consumption, intoxication, and joy. The association of alcohol with parties and joy is the main motivation to drink and the main barrier to change drinking habits. Two units of meaning were identified: a continuum between normal and pathologic drinking; and concept of joy subordinated to alcohol consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The critical analysis of culture continues to be a blind spot in the majority of approaches to the issue of human rights. In the following essay we propose to bring the problematic of culture—and "the dictatorships of the contemporary world" that "are much less visible"—to the forefront as a contribution to the dual project of studying culture from the perspective of human rights and studying the latter as a cultural problem. Part of the effort is devoted to highlight the cultural and historical foundations of "the person" and her rights. Next, we argue that the Universal Declaration of 1948 documents a process of emancipation all right, but at the same time it registers the existence of two contradictory projects. This led to practices contrary to the recognition and respect of HHRR. A peculiar and partial reading and interpretation of human rights emerged as dominant, centered on so-called "individual and political rights" "fundamental rights" or "first generation rights" which here we call the North American episteme. We argue in favor of transcending this hegemonic paradigm, of restoring the centrality of history and culture, of returning to the spirit of the Universal Declaration where all Rights are one and indivisible, favoring an idea of Human Rights as an open-ended project, in much need of revision, actualization and renegotiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is the result of an ethnographic research based on interpretative anthropology. It aims to interpret the meanings of alcohol misuse in families from a poor Venezuelan community. Twenty members from six families participated in the study. The results show differences between meanings children and parents held regarding alcohol consumption. Children held a more positive view, whereas mothers presented the lowest acceptation of alcohol consumption. Meanings were more convergent than divergent, which allowed the identification of the following units: excessive consumption, intoxication, and joy. The association of alcohol with parties and joy is the main motivation to drink and the main barrier to change drinking habits. Two units of meaning were identified: a continuum between normal and pathologic drinking; and concept of joy subordinated to alcohol consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]