Women and Alcohol in a Highland Maya Town: Water of Hope, Water of Sorrow / Edition 2

Women and Alcohol in a Highland Maya Town: Water of Hope, Water of Sorrow / Edition 2

by Christine Eber
ISBN-10:
0292721048
ISBN-13:
9780292721043
Pub. Date:
11/01/2000
Publisher:
University of Texas Press
ISBN-10:
0292721048
ISBN-13:
9780292721043
Pub. Date:
11/01/2000
Publisher:
University of Texas Press
Women and Alcohol in a Highland Maya Town: Water of Hope, Water of Sorrow / Edition 2

Women and Alcohol in a Highland Maya Town: Water of Hope, Water of Sorrow / Edition 2

by Christine Eber
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Overview

Healing roles and rituals involving alcohol are a major source of power and identity for women and men in Highland Chiapas, Mexico, where abstention from alcohol can bring a loss of meaningful roles and of a sense of community. Yet, as in other parts of the world, alcohol use sometimes leads to abuse, whose effects must then be combated by individuals and the community.

In this pioneering ethnography, Christine Eber looks at women and drinking in the community of San Pedro Chenalhó to address the issues of women's identities, roles, relationships, and sources of power. She explores various personal and social strategies women use to avoid problem drinking, including conversion to Protestant religions, membership in cooperatives or Catholic Action, and modification of ritual forms with substitute beverages.

The book's women-centered perspective reveals important data on women and drinking not reported in earlier ethnographies of Highland Chiapas communities. Eber's reflexive approach, blending the women's stories, analyses, songs, and prayers with her own and other ethnographers' views, shows how Western, individualistic approaches to the problems of alcohol abuse are inadequate for understanding women's experiences with problem and ritual drinking in a non-Western culture.

In a new epilogue, Christine Eber describes how events of the last decade, including the Zapatista uprising, have strengthened women's resolve to gain greater control over their lives by controlling the effects of alcohol in the community.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780292721043
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Publication date: 11/01/2000
Edition description: REVISED
Pages: 342
Sales rank: 970,584
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.76(d)

About the Author

Christine Eber is Professor Emerita of Anthropology at New Mexico State University.

Table of Contents

  • List of Major Characters
  • Acknowledgments
  • On Translations and Aids to Reading This Book
  • Preface
  • 1. Frameworks and Methods
  • 2. The Time of Suffering: Pedranos, Ladinos, and Rum
  • 3. I Have Come: Crazy February
  • 4. Making One's Soul Arrive: Child Rearing and Household Relations
  • 5. "Before God's flowery face": The Feast of St. Peter
  • 6. "Now I am going like a branch and its leaves": Drinkers and Their Families
  • 7. Water of Hope, Water of Sorrow: A Processual Framework on Drinking
  • 8. "Beneath God's flowery hands and feet": Shamans' Cures for Problem Drinking
  • 9. "It's time to change": Mestizoization and Drinking
  • 10. "For ye are bought with a price": Traditions, Religions, and Drinking
  • 11. "Today we say: Enough!": New Voices, New Collective Action
  • 12. Conclusion
  • List of the Martyrs at Acteal
  • Epilogue
  • Appendices
    • A. Traditional Pedrano Gods
    • B. Non-Traditional Healing in Chenalhó
    • C. Brief History of Presbyterianism in Chenalhó
    • D. Revelation 21:3-8
  • Notes
  • Glossary
  • References
  • Index
  • Index of Major Characters
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