UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Shame as a barrier to health seeking among indigenous Huichol migrant labourers: an interpretive approach of the "Violence Continuum" and "Authoritative Knowledge”.

Gamlin, JB; (2013) Shame as a barrier to health seeking among indigenous Huichol migrant labourers: an interpretive approach of the "Violence Continuum" and "Authoritative Knowledge”. Social Science and Medicine, 97 , 97 75 - 81. 10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.08.012. Green open access

[thumbnail of 1-s2.0-S0277953613004644-main.pdf]
Preview
PDF
1-s2.0-S0277953613004644-main.pdf

Download (250kB)

Abstract

This article discusses the manner in which social and historical factors impact upon indigenous conceptions of health and health-seeking behaviour, reinforcing their authoritative knowledge about birth and wellbeing. It explores how Mexican indigenous Huichol migrant labourers experience structural, everyday and symbolic violence while away working, and in their home communities. The study was based on semi-structured interviews and observations with 33 Huichol migrant labourers and 12 key informants from the community (traditional healthcare providers), health sector (medical doctors based in the highlands) and tobacco industry (farmers, tobacco union leader and pesticide sellers) during 2010–11. Findings show how the continuum of violence is experienced by these migrants as shame, timidity and humiliation, expressions of symbolic violence that have helped define their tradition of birthing alone and their feeling of entitlement to the conditional welfare payments which sustain their marginalised subsistence lifestyle. This paper proposes that there is a cyclical relationship between structural violence and authoritative knowledge as the former reinforces their adherence to a set of cultural beliefs and practices which are the basis of racial discrimination against them.

Type: Article
Title: Shame as a barrier to health seeking among indigenous Huichol migrant labourers: an interpretive approach of the "Violence Continuum" and "Authoritative Knowledge”.
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.08.012
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.08.012
Additional information: �© 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Keywords: Indigenous health; Huichol culture; Mexico; Health inequalities; Shame; Structural violence;
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute for Global Health
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1431268
Downloads since deposit
151Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item