9 Matching Annotations
  1. Dec 2017
    1. People are just foolish and believe what they want to believe. They weretalking behind my back, accusing me of being a witch, pointing at me, andspreading all kinds of gossip. But all of this was just a plan by mybrother-in-law and his wife to kick me off the shamba because they knewthere was not enough land to support all of us. Even if I agreed to marry [mybrother-in-law] he would not have taken me as his second wife because itwas not possible to support us, and [his first wife] would not have allowed itanyway. It was good for him to say I was a witch and that I gave myhusband AIDS. I lost everything in this way...the shamba just rotted awaybeneath my feet. [Juma’s mother, November

      One of the many culture-specific aspects of violence done to Juma is the patriarchal ideology this society seems to reside on. We see this occur over the ownership dispute of the shamba between Juma’s mother and uncle. In this passage, we see Juma’s mother’s account of her lifeworld crumbling once a man had accused her of infecting Juma’s father with AIDs and thereby killing him. It’s quite evident that women do not have equal standing in this society – especially when, as the study progresses, Juma’s mother becomes dependent and really has no other choice but to be dependent on a string of multiple “boyfriends” to be able to get some money. And we expect this kind of practice is not uncommon, considering the potential jargon “professional prostitutes” – which is possibly used by women just like Juma’s mother who try to cope with their awful situation.

      This bias against women affects Juma because if his mother had an equal standing with a man, perhaps she wouldn’t have had her shamba taken away so easily like that – and maybe people wouldn’t have been so quick to turn against her over one baseless accusation. If the scenario occurred whereas they were able to live in that shamba, then Juma wouldn’t have had to turn to the streets and grow dependent on the streets for survival.

  2. Oct 2017
    1. sity faculty member) describes her temporomandibular joint disorder in this way: "It's like a shadow that throws the other parts of my life into brighter contrast. You see my brights are brighter, 'cause I have this darkness hovering all around the edges" (1992:129). Weapon or demon metaphors are often used to describe pain (see also Good 1992). Scarry's respon- dents refer to pain as a "knife, or bones that cut through

      I think majority of the people in the transcripts are trying to give a metaphorical presentation of their pain – because it’s hard for someone, an outsider no less, to understand and fully grasp what an addict is going through and to know, truly, how difficult it is to get back on track – and even more so how dissuasive it feels to even return to their previous, healthy state.

      This excerpt from the study is an example of an allegorical interpretation of their pain because they use actions or examples to better describe the pain they undergo during “withdrawal pain.” In the first instance of this excerpt, the girl describes how things are in much "higher contrast" - she can see the positives much brighter with these drugs, but she can also feel the negatives much deeper and opaque with the loss of it. Hence, the comparison creates a strong kind of dependency, a strong, overwhelming feeling of need. And at the last part of the section, they describe weapon metaphors such as "knife, or bones that cut through." That kind of extreme, brutal, and gruesome pain is being used in their narratives to describe the torture, the magnitude of what their "withdrawal pain" feels like.

    1. However, only PND mothers reported a difficulty insharing feelings. As one mother said, ‘‘I feel if I talk tosomebody, I will feel better. But this will also lead toquarrels, so it is best not to talk to anybody’’.

      This quote shows the clash between the biomedical explanatory framework versus the woman’s own framework of her distress because concerning majority of psychological or emotional problems, “talking it out” is often the best advice – especially to a professional or a family or friend. However, in the case of one PND mother, they feel that if they talk to somebody – they would feel better (recognizing the biomedical framework), but “this will also lead to quarrels, so it is best not to talk to anybody” (dismissing the biomedical and putting culturally-influenced priorities over the biomedical framework).

    2. Of the three mothers who had sought medicaltreatment, none complained directly to the doctor abouttheir emotional symptoms, choosing instead to complainabout headaches and tiredness. One woman admitted tobeing hospitalized for these complaints. She expressedfeelings of helplessness: ‘‘What is the use of taking anytreatment? Whatever has to happen will happen. There’sno solution for it. If he [husband] is good, theneverything would be fine’’.

      This quote illustrates the clash between the biomedical explanatory framework versus the woman’s own framework of her distress because the woman seems to dismiss her emotional symptoms and instead focuses on what her culture values as of more importance and of priority. In this instance, all three women chose not to complain about their emotional symptoms, and instead chose to hyper focus on the value and dependence of their “husbands” and find that receiving “treatment” from doctors would not erase the problem, but a good husband would.

    1. estab-lish their authority

      It was very difficult to find an interpretation I disagree with, so I'll be super nit-picky here! I disagree with this because for a group of people so devoted to their religion (and although there still lay a pattern of male figure-heads and assumed authority), I think the rabbis are actually genuine in their beliefs and application of their beliefs to their student's problems. I think, rather than seeing it as wanting to "establish their authority" - we can picture it like how a mother would try and reprimand her daughter not be careless with a boy when drinking. It's not because the mother wants to establish authority, but because the mother might've experienced a mistake similar - or witnessed someone make that kind of decision and its consequences. Therefore, they wish to prevent their daughter from making the same mistake. In this case, the rabbis, in terms of their principles and what they believe is right according to their "world," describe their students' problems in a way that fits according to that world - not for some power-hungry desire, but because they apply their culture (what they've embodied) to their students (the students who ought to be following that very same culture).

    2. His mother is a very anxious woman, very very anxious....

      When Rabbi Dov talks about Yosef’s mother, he presents a possible embodied experience made by Yosef being raised by his “anxious” mother. For the rest of Rabbi Dov’s dialogue, he describes Yosef’s unorthodox and introverted behavior – including features like not having his hair trimmed, not wearing a hat, not wearing the cloak, and just overall the seemingly lost disposition Yosef carried as he developed. A good way of thinking about the concept of embodiment is the “social body.” The body that is influenced by the culture we are raised in or by the role models we situate ourselves by. In this case, since it seems like Yosef was constantly being pestered by his mother due to her anxious nature, he might’ve adopted that kind of behavior and grew to be how he is today. He embodied her mannerisms and insecurity and transferred it to himself – now it affects his behavior as a disciple or a follower of this religion and, Rabbi Dov believes, it is the reason why he is so obsessed with the “woman,” even when there is no logical way that he could’ve helped that woman survive.

  3. Sep 2017
  4. blogs.baruch.cuny.edu blogs.baruch.cuny.edu
    1. A substantial minority of women reported only1 lifetime sexual partner in both ACASI and DHSdata, but no participants in the qualitative

      In this section, authors present in a chart and in-text that lots of women reported only having 1 lifetime sexual partner in the quantitative surveys, but when asked through an interview, virtually no participants admit to having 1 lifetime sexual partner. One may argue the high difference in participation count (the stark difference between a whopping 14 people and 2676 or 310) would dramatically skew the figures, but I think this kind of result is inevitable because of how different the data was collected. Hence, it would dramatically affect how the interviewed individual approaches the question and what level of truth they are willing to admit.

      However, despite that, depending on how the quantitative survey was administered, I might lean on the ACASI and DHS data for accuracy. The only thing that truly bothers me is the high difference in interview and survey count. It just leaves a high possibility that perhaps the people they've interviewed just happened to be the ones that reported not having 1 lifetime sexual partner. To me, I think showing the truth through answering a survey may be easier than actually telling the truth to an interviewer. The survey puts a kind of wall or line in-between the researchers and the individual's private life that they may value. Therefore, the individual may differ in interview than they do in the survey.

    2. A qualitative explorationin South Africa found that women who describednon-consensual, coerced, or violent sexual experi-ences with intimate partners would frequentlydescribe these experiences as disappointing, emo-tionally hurtful, or traumatic, but rarely categorizedthem as rape and often attributed them to men’s‘‘natural’’sexual drives and entitlement.34

      One of the seven aspects of culture is “social organization.” The video defines social organization as how a society “ranks people by order of status.” Ranking is typically based on “money, occupation, education, ethnicity and other factors.” In this case, the hierarchy obviously places men on a high pedestal.

      Due to the fact that these women and probably all of their children have been raised by that standard and set of beliefs, South African women will share a paradigm that men of their country have that kind of right or privilege to do as they please. They believe that the only thing they can truly be upset about, because of the way this ‘divine’ hierarchy works, is based on personal preferences and general dissatisfaction.

      In this way, the culture certainly affects the data and is highly important to take note of because their vocabulary choice of not using the term “rape” does not necessarily speak to their personal view or consent to the events, but because of the way they are raised and the way they view other people – most importantly, their rapists.

    3. We present a case studythat illustrates challenges and potential solutions tomaximize data validity and describe these behaviorsand experiences as closely as possible.

      The main point of this article is to emphasize the "challenges and potential solutions" in quantitative and qualitative research. Therefore, in this case, the authors wants to understand, as dictated further in the paragraph, why and how data collection may contrast in research. In this article, they will be approaching the case study of young Swazi women with the goal of trying to understand the sociological reason and effects behind a researcher's behavior and interpretation of their own data.

      I believe it's essential for researchers to understand why they interpret their data in a certain manner because it adds some basis in their interpretation- because they have this kind of paradigm, they interpret the information in this manner. When we understand why a person views their data in a certain light, we might also be able to view the data they've collected in a more 'objective' light by diverging away from the researcher's paradigm and considering different ideologies. In this manner we will be able to see and understand why certain research results or data collection may differ from one another.