University of Texas Press
Here, Our Culture Is Hard
About this book
Marriage among the Maya of Central America is a model of complementarity between a man and a woman. This union demands mutual respect and mutual service. Yet some husbands beat their wives.
In this pioneering book, Laura McClusky examines the lives of several Mopan Maya women in Belize. Using engaging ethnographic narratives and a highly accessible analysis of the lives that have unfolded before her, McClusky explores Mayan women's strategies for enduring, escaping, and avoiding abuse. Factors such as gender, age inequalities, marriage patterns, family structure, educational opportunities, and economic development all play a role in either preventing or contributing to domestic violence in the village. McClusky argues that using narrative ethnography, instead of cold statistics or dehumanized theoretical models, helps to keep the focus on people, "rehumanizing" our understanding of violence. This highly accessible book brings to the social sciences new ways of thinking about, representing, and studying abuse, marriage, death, gender roles, and violence.
Author / Editor information
Laura J. McClusky, Ph.D., is an adjunct faculty member at SUNY at Buffalo, Buffalo State College, and Erie Community College.
Reviews
This is the first book I am aware of that focuses primarily on the issue of domestic violence in Mexico and Central America. . . . It is a courageous undertaking for the author to write on this topic, and she carries it off with grace, humility, and honesty. . . . This book has far more potential to be of interest to a general readership than most academic books.
Topics
-
Download PDFPublicly Available
Frontmatter
i -
Download PDFPublicly Available
Contents
vii -
Download PDFPublicly Available
Acknowledgments
ix -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Introduction
1 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
1. The Field Site and Fieldwork
24 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
2. Laziness and Work
52 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
3. Another Legitimate Beating
88 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
4. Daughters
138 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
5. "When We Go to High School, We Change"
172 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
6. Traveling Spirits
207 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Summary and Discussion
252 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Epilogue: Milling Data
267 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Appendix: List of Main Characters
273 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Notes
277 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Glossary
283 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
References Cited
287 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Index
301
