Angels with wet wings won't fly: Maternal sentiment in Brazil and the image of neglect

Abstract

Current theories of fatalism and neglect and current descriptions of childhood illness in impoverished Northeastern Brazil are evaluated. Findings of an ongoing multidisciplinary project indicate that neglect and fatalism theories are incomplete as applied to the Brazilian Northeast. Intensive interviews and observations with bereaved mothers and traditional healers show that mothers' failure to obtain medical care for severely ill children is due more to real-life bureaucratic and geographic barriers to access than to fatalistic or neglectful attitudes on the part of the poor, that mothers' flat affect in response to infant deaths is due more to folk Catholic beliefs than to lack of emotional attachment to infants, that fatalistic statements are often post hoc and do not indicate fatalistic behavior, and that decisions about whether to treat severely ill infants are made by mothers and families in consultation with traditional healers in accord with a folk system of classification of high risk infants. What have been described as "death accepting," "pathogenic," and "ethnoeugenic" attitudes are part of a folk ethical system developed to guide reactions to terminal childhood illness. We argue that human behavior, especially in the realm of health, cannot be understood without reference to both biomedical and psychosocial realities.

Preventable infant mortality and quality of health care: maternal perception of the child's illness and treatment

“…Some mothers also identified teething as a cause of the diarrhea. This association was also found in some studies conducted on populations in northeast Brazil (Nations & Rebhun, 1988;Scheper-Hughes, 1984). Another cause of diarrhea identified by some mothers was "espinhela caída" (literally "drooping chestbone") a folk illness identified by various Brazilian population groups.…”

“…Mothers appear to have considered diarrhea a common, non-serious problem, requiring simple solutions. Nations & Rebhun (1988) observed in Ceará that not all cases of diarrhea were perceived by the study population as abnormal or requiring treatment. It is understandable in social groups lacking basic sanitation and safe drinking water that bouts of diarrhea in children are relatively frequent and constitute ordinary events.…”

Preventable infant mortality and quality of health care: maternal perception of the child's illness and treatment

“…Some mothers also identified teething as a cause of the diarrhea. This association was also found in some studies conducted on populations in northeast Brazil (Nations & Rebhun, 1988;Scheper-Hughes, 1984). Another cause of diarrhea identified by some mothers was "espinhela caída" (literally "drooping chestbone") a folk illness identified by various Brazilian population groups.…”

“…Mothers appear to have considered diarrhea a common, non-serious problem, requiring simple solutions. Nations & Rebhun (1988) observed in Ceará that not all cases of diarrhea were perceived by the study population as abnormal or requiring treatment. It is understandable in social groups lacking basic sanitation and safe drinking water that bouts of diarrhea in children are relatively frequent and constitute ordinary events.…”

Suffering Peacefully: Experiences of Infancy Death in Contemporary Zambia

“…Nations and Rebhun's () descriptions of how controlling emotional expressions are considered to aid the mother and the baby to go their separate ways resemble my findings from Ng'ombe. If a baby in Ng'ombe passes away during the time of seclusion, it is the responsibility of the community to ensure that the process of making the baby into a social person by incorporating it into the community is quickly terminated.…”

Infant death and interpretive violence in Northeast Brazil: taking bereaved Cearense mothers' narratives to heart

“…In ethnographic history, it is rare to find two studies that were more or less contemporaneous, addressed the same topic and occurred in proximate locations. Without epidemiology's rigorous control groups, ethnographic data interpretation "is essentially contestable" as Geertz 13 (p. 29) says. Data verification is anchored in the more ephemeral, dialectic processes of "sustaining a discussion" and "refining the debate".…”

Preventable infant mortality and quality of health care: maternal perception of the child's illness and treatment

“…Some mothers also identified teething as a cause of the diarrhea. This association was also found in some studies conducted on populations in northeast Brazil (Nations & Rebhun, 1988;Scheper-Hughes, 1984). Another cause of diarrhea identified by some mothers was "espinhela caída" (literally "drooping chestbone") a folk illness identified by various Brazilian population groups.…”

“…Mothers appear to have considered diarrhea a common, non-serious problem, requiring simple solutions. Nations & Rebhun (1988) observed in Ceará that not all cases of diarrhea were perceived by the study population as abnormal or requiring treatment. It is understandable in social groups lacking basic sanitation and safe drinking water that bouts of diarrhea in children are relatively frequent and constitute ordinary events.…”

Suffering Peacefully: Experiences of Infancy Death in Contemporary Zambia

“…Nations and Rebhun's () descriptions of how controlling emotional expressions are considered to aid the mother and the baby to go their separate ways resemble my findings from Ng'ombe. If a baby in Ng'ombe passes away during the time of seclusion, it is the responsibility of the community to ensure that the process of making the baby into a social person by incorporating it into the community is quickly terminated.…”

Infant death and interpretive violence in Northeast Brazil: taking bereaved Cearense mothers' narratives to heart

“…In ethnographic history, it is rare to find two studies that were more or less contemporaneous, addressed the same topic and occurred in proximate locations. Without epidemiology's rigorous control groups, ethnographic data interpretation "is essentially contestable" as Geertz 13 (p. 29) says. Data verification is anchored in the more ephemeral, dialectic processes of "sustaining a discussion" and "refining the debate".…”

Preventable infant mortality and quality of health care: maternal perception of the child's illness and treatment

“…Some mothers also identified teething as a cause of the diarrhea. This association was also found in some studies conducted on populations in northeast Brazil (Nations & Rebhun, 1988;Scheper-Hughes, 1984). Another cause of diarrhea identified by some mothers was "espinhela caída" (literally "drooping chestbone") a folk illness identified by various Brazilian population groups.…”

“…Mothers appear to have considered diarrhea a common, non-serious problem, requiring simple solutions. Nations & Rebhun (1988) observed in Ceará that not all cases of diarrhea were perceived by the study population as abnormal or requiring treatment. It is understandable in social groups lacking basic sanitation and safe drinking water that bouts of diarrhea in children are relatively frequent and constitute ordinary events.…”

Suffering Peacefully: Experiences of Infancy Death in Contemporary Zambia

“…Nations and Rebhun's () descriptions of how controlling emotional expressions are considered to aid the mother and the baby to go their separate ways resemble my findings from Ng'ombe. If a baby in Ng'ombe passes away during the time of seclusion, it is the responsibility of the community to ensure that the process of making the baby into a social person by incorporating it into the community is quickly terminated.…”

Infant death and interpretive violence in Northeast Brazil: taking bereaved Cearense mothers' narratives to heart

“…In ethnographic history, it is rare to find two studies that were more or less contemporaneous, addressed the same topic and occurred in proximate locations. Without epidemiology's rigorous control groups, ethnographic data interpretation "is essentially contestable" as Geertz 13 (p. 29) says. Data verification is anchored in the more ephemeral, dialectic processes of "sustaining a discussion" and "refining the debate".…”