In the year 1989, a controversial spotlight was aimed towards Brazil and its people, through the publication of Nancy Scheper-Hughes ethnography, Death Without Weeping. Undeniably horrific, the collected accounts of Scheper-Hughes has raised multiple questions regarding the health, government, and most significantly, infant mortality, as related to the people of Timbaúba. Through Scheper-Hughes experiences, as both a Peace Corps volunteer and social anthropologist later on, Death Without Weeping delves into a community poisoned by uncontrollable difficulties. Moreover, through the appalling revelation of infant mortality amongst the Alto do Cruzeiro, Scheper-Hughes finds herself puzzled with a complexing question of her own; how is that these
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Death in fact became so common, that if a woman would have nine pregnancies, only three would go on to live. This was considered normal to the people of Alto, but not to Scheper-Hughes. She was astonished by the infant mortality. The death of a child at such an age was rare to Hughes, especially as compared to that of America. However, this was just the beginning of the startling encounters she had with this …show more content…
The women at no times lacked love for the infant, but rather grown to accept the reality of the conditions in which they were living in. Raising a family in such an impoverished situation, meant that the child would come into a world of disease and poverty. Thus creating generalizational poverty. At no instance did Scheper-Hughes conclude that these women were malevolent humans, they were rather accustomed to their living conditions. The poverty in which they lived in affected their own outlook on life, and basically forced them to accept whatever situation they were faced with. Although it appeared shocking at first, Scheper-Hughes anthropological works found that these woman learned to accept infant mortality because of what they were faced with, along with other various factors such as religious
Death in fact became so common, that if a woman would have nine pregnancies, only three would go on to live. This was considered normal to the people of Alto, but not to Scheper-Hughes. She was astonished by the infant mortality. The death of a child at such an age was rare to Hughes, especially as compared to that of America. However, this was just the beginning of the startling encounters she had with this …show more content…
The women at no times lacked love for the infant, but rather grown to accept the reality of the conditions in which they were living in. Raising a family in such an impoverished situation, meant that the child would come into a world of disease and poverty. Thus creating generalizational poverty. At no instance did Scheper-Hughes conclude that these women were malevolent humans, they were rather accustomed to their living conditions. The poverty in which they lived in affected their own outlook on life, and basically forced them to accept whatever situation they were faced with. Although it appeared shocking at first, Scheper-Hughes anthropological works found that these woman learned to accept infant mortality because of what they were faced with, along with other various factors such as religious