Bad blood, spoiled milk: bodily fluids as moral barometers in rural Haiti

Bad blood, spoiled milk: bodily fluids as moral barometers in rural Haiti Paul Farmer

Mexican 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

Spiritist 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

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

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

Humeral medicine • 4 Humors YELLOW BILE FIRE DRY HOT AIR BLOOD BLACK BILE EARTH WATER COLD WET PHLEGM

SYMPTOMS • 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

TREATMENT TO 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

ETIOLOGY(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

susto • 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

Susto varies depending on gender—men & women are socialized differently • Women have fewer mechanisms for reducing stress

coraje • 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

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) • Most sufferers reported problems with spouses or family

Spoiled milk (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

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”

etiologies • 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”

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.”

“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

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.”

Explanatory 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

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

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

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

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

The 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

Pancho villa cult • Why a macho superhero? • Villa was a womanizer • Villa opposed soldaderas • Chencha becomes Villa, a manly woman

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

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

Marianismo rejected • Esperanza & Chencha reject the suffering virgin image • They write themselves into national history through the performance of healing • History is now “ambiguously gendered”

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

esperanza Suffering Rage Redemption

Bad blood, spoiled milk: bodily fluids as moral barometers in rural Haiti