Here, Our Culture Is Hard
Here, Our Culture Is Hard
Stories of Domestic Violence from a Mayan Community in Belize
Marriage among the Maya of Central America is a model of complementarity between a man and a woman. This union demands mutual respect and mutual service. Yet some husbands beat their wives.
In this pioneering book, Laura McClusky examines the lives of several Mopan Maya women in Belize. Using engaging ethnographic narratives and a highly accessible analysis of the lives that have unfolded before her, McClusky explores Mayan women's strategies for enduring, escaping, and avoiding abuse. Factors such as gender, age inequalities, marriage patterns, family structure, educational opportunities, and economic development all play a role in either preventing or contributing to domestic violence in the village. McClusky argues that using narrative ethnography, instead of cold statistics or dehumanized theoretical models, helps to keep the focus on people, "rehumanizing" our understanding of violence. This highly accessible book brings to the social sciences new ways of thinking about, representing, and studying abuse, marriage, death, gender roles, and violence.
This is the first book I am aware of that focuses primarily on the issue of domestic violence in Mexico and Central America. . . . It is a courageous undertaking for the author to write on this topic, and she carries it off with grace, humility, and honesty. . . . This book has far more potential to be of interest to a general readership than most academic books.
Laura J. McClusky, Ph.D., is an adjunct faculty member at SUNY at Buffalo, Buffalo State College, and Erie Community College.
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- I. The Field Site and Fieldwork
- 2. Laziness and Work
- 3. Another Legitimate Beating
- 4. Daughters
- 5. "When We Go to High School, We Change"
- 6. Traveling Spirits
- Summary and Discussion
- Epilogue: Milling Data
- Appendix: List of Main Characters
- Notes
- Glossary
- References Cited
- Index
