Gender, emotion, and physical distress: The Sicilian-Canadian ?nerves? complex

Abstract

Researchers identify "nerves" as an idiom of distress, an illness category, a metaphorical device capable of communicating social distress, and a technique for impression management. Much of the literature, however, links "nerves" to women. In this paper, I address two aspects of the phenomenon which have received limited attention. First, I discuss "nerves" within the context of Sicilian-Canadian conceptions of anatomy and physiology. Sicilian-Canadians regard "nerves" as essential components of the human anatomy which, in some cases, may be linked to both physical and psychic distress. Second, I build on this discussion to examine how Sicilian-Canadian males make use of the "nerves" idiom. The implications of my work include the need to: (1) modify our definition of "nerves" to recognize formally that we are dealing with a dynamic complex consisting of multiple, variable, and ambiguous meanings--meanings that enable people to confront or cope with a variety of situations; (2) direct greater attention to "nerves" as an idiom of physical distress; and, (3) examine further the role of physical "nerves" in the social construction of gender.

The Jamaican body's role in emotional experience and sense perception: Feelings, hearts, minds, and nerves

“…Symptoms of nerves problems described by Jamaicans are quite similar to those described for other groups by various scholars (e.g., Davis 1983;Dunk 1989;Hill and Cottrell 1986;Migliore 1994;Scheper-Hughes 1992;Van Schaik 1989) and summarized by Setha Low in her cross-cultural reviews of the condition (1994,1985). Deficient sinews levels cause dim vision and other eye problems, and teeth often feel "on edge" or ache: one nerves sufferer who talked with me, Miss Lauren, said that she constantly felt on the verge of having a toothache.…”

“…For example (and see also Kirmayer 1992;Low 1994;Migliore 1994;Ots 1990; Rosaldo 1984), on the basis of a literature review and an ethnographic inquiry into a Salvadorian complaint called el calor or the heat, Janis Jenkins has suggested the existence of a feeling domain that she calls the meta-emotional (1994: 320). Emotion that is labeled and experienced as a bodily feeling rather than as mentalistic is meta-emotional (p. 319).…”

“…Anthropological research also has begun on the sensate aspects of emotion. Still, few have examined the links between local physiological conceptions and emotion states (exceptions are Davis 1983; Migliore 1994).…”

Concept, Development and Application of a New Mixed Method Assessment of Cultural Variations in Illness Perceptions

“…Furthermore, substance abuse, lack of spirit or faith and breaching of moral taboos raise issues of personal culpability and individuals can therefore be reluctant to volunteer these sorts of explanation (Dein & Sembhi, 2001). Other causal attributions deal with a sense of vulnerability to distress based on some individual characteristic such as age, gender, religion, culture, social status or genetic make-up (Migliore, 1994;Rasmussen, 1992;Storck, Csordas, & Strauss, 2000). It appeared that distress was often ascribed to what might be characterized as imbalances, some of which seemed to be intrinsic to the individual (i.e.…”

Models of the Joint Structure of Domain-Related and Global Distress: Implications for the Reconciliation of Quality of Life and Mental Health Perspectives

“…The possibility that people use alternate affective terms, or ''hot'' cognitive terms like ''unfair'' to refer to their distress is linked to the idea that lay idioms of distress (Harré 2000;Migliore 1994;Rogler et al 1994) may differ from technical language. If the hypothesis is correct, then including correlations among those pairs of items will significantly improve overall model fit.…”