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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
The Mexican American Sobador, Convergent Disease Discourse, And Pain Validation In South Texas, Servando Z. Hinojosa
The Mexican American Sobador, Convergent Disease Discourse, And Pain Validation In South Texas, Servando Z. Hinojosa
Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations
This paper examines how Mexican American sobadores (folk manual therapists) provide needed health services to South Texas residents. Operating in a region with high levels of workplace injuries, chronic disease, and low levels of insuredness, sobadores offer a kind of attention that is appealing in terms of cost, accessibility, and cultural familiarity. The latter is particularly evident with respect to two factors: convergent ethnophysiological discourse and pain validation. Injured people can approach the sobador with minimal trepidation, in part, because sobadores and clients have shared ways of talking about the body and disease. Clients can also expect that sobadores will …
Mexican Justice: Codified Law, Patronage, And The Regulation Of Social Affairs In Guerrero, Mexico, Chris Kyle, William Yaworsky
Mexican Justice: Codified Law, Patronage, And The Regulation Of Social Affairs In Guerrero, Mexico, Chris Kyle, William Yaworsky
Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations
Social life in Mexico has long been regulated not by codified jural rules and the institutions of the state but by means of hierarchically structured patronage networks. This article illustrates the pervasiveness of patronage relationships by looking at the activities of a human rights advocacy organization operating in Chilapa, Guerrero. Though ostensibly committed to working through the jural rules and the institutions of the state, practical reality commonly intrudes and forces the organization to activate patronage ties in order to assist their clients. The article also explores the implications of patronage relationships for ongoing debates about the presumed irreconcilability of …