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In Romania—where induced abortions were legally prohibited during communism and are now morally condemned by many—those who lose a pregnancy against their will have long been regarded with suspicion, confronted with a sense of culpability, and surrounded by silence. This ambiguity is reflected in the local terminology and the perceived etiology of loss. In this article, which is based on 15 months...
Ambiguity, this paper argues, is not merely a property of dream imagery, but ignites a process that is dreaming thinking. When images are ambiguous, the mind cannot fix on a single meaning. Hence dream ambiguity catalyzes a play of possible meanings that implicitly raises questions, not only about personal memories but also about those cultural models that these memories evoke. Dream thinking, then,...
This article argues for the value of interdisciplinarity by attempting to integrate an evolutionary theory of human ontogeny with psychodynamic perspectives to explain the origins of an American cultural schema of marriage. Specifically, I draw on the work of evolutionary psychologist Michael Tomasello to propose that key features of the American “cultural” schema for marriage—commitment to it and...
This study critically engages two analytic constructs: western psychological individualism (with its assumed emotional interiority) and the notion of a generic sociocentric self. By looking at the emotional practices of the Akha of Northern Thailand in a nonmodern context, I aim to show the distinctiveness of a particular type of socio‐ and cosmo‐centric self, that of the “microcosmic,” “level” self,...
In Haiti, a “sent spirit” is an experience of misfortune, such as an illness or accident, which is interpreted as intentionally sent by someone supernaturally. Sent spirits are fundamentally social narratives, reflecting links among social inequality, structural violence, and solidarity. This article focuses on the ethnographic stories of two women who experienced the death of a daughter, with one...
An ethnographic exploration of “mass hysteria” in Nepal reconsiders existing anthropological treatments of this form of affliction as gendered resistance. In Nepal, affected communities and girls dispute psychosocial counselors and anthropologists on conceptual grounds. These conflicts revolve around two distinct understandings of the subject of affliction. The subject of “mass hysteria” takes a liberal...
By adopting a discursive practice approach, this work examines how embodied deference rituals were practiced by Vietnamese children in the Mekong Delta region. Sixty‐two video‐recorded events of vòng tay/khoanh tay performed by 23 children (ages 1.5 to 12 years) were identified; of those, 51 events performed by 12 preschool‐aged children were most rigorous and demanding. On the occasions of greeting/departing,...
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