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Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America
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Fraternity, Dignity, And Democracy: Forms Of Value In Northeast Brazil’S Health Care Reform Movement, Jessica Jerome
Fraternity, Dignity, And Democracy: Forms Of Value In Northeast Brazil’S Health Care Reform Movement, Jessica Jerome
Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America
This essay applies Terence Turner’s insight that production is the key to understanding social value to the context of an urban poor community in Fortaleza, Brazil. It uses this insight to address a contemporary tension in the community between democratic values espoused by city and state politicians and local forms of value which glorify fraternity and dignity. I argue that older women’s daily activities (such as courtyard maintenance, siestas, and dinner potlucks) produce the values of dignity and fraternity, which women regard as essential to sustaining their households’ viability. It is the dispossession of these values by government sanctioned forms …