研究博客

Trinity’s 加勒比研究中心 supports research projects by students, 教师, and staff related to / based in the Caribbean region through grants and fellowships. Starting in AY 2023-2024, such grants will be followed by a blog.  

Anthropology major Kathy Miranda (Class of 2024) offers our inaugural blog submission on her spring break fieldwork 在洪都拉斯.  

所有照片均由作者拍摄. 

大家好! 我叫凯西·米兰达. I’m currently a senior studying anthropology on a pre-medical track with interests in health education and public health policy.  

As I was thinking about possible topics of research for my 荣誉s thesis in spring 2023, I reflected on my experiences as a Honduran and a college student that had led to my personal commitments in how health, 疾病, 疾病也被理解了, 有经验的, 受文化影响, 社会经济, 社会政治的, 宗教, 历史的影响.  

全球流行病, 新型冠状病毒肺炎, immediately came to my mind as I observed the ways in which my Honduran family—both extended and immediate—behaved and responded to vaccine mandates, 医疗信息, 和限制. I noticed a general pattern of distrust, hesitancy, or complete negation. I began to consider the possible sources of their medical knowledge and the range of factors that might impact their medical decision-making. This led me to a larger curiosity of how power and gender manifests within Latino homes, specifically in Honduran homes where religion and patriarchy can historically be major players.  

提供一些背景信息, 在疫情最严重的时候, it was most often my female family members conducting and maintaining contact with family as well as, obtaining and disseminating 医疗信息 and remedies to other female family members whereas my male family members were virtually left out of these exchanges. Such interactions reminded me of a saying commonly used to explain the gender performance and the distribution of social roles within Latino culture which states, “Las mujeres son de la casa y los hombre son de la calle” meaning, “女人是从家里来的(属于家)和街上来的男人(属于街道). 换句话说, women traditionally are thought to govern the realm of domesticity and private spaces: the home and those living within the home while men govern public spaces. 在医学人类学的背景下, the mother then emerges as a major source of influence in the home extending so much so over even the medical decision-making of her adult children.  

用这个, 我探索了荣誉的基础结构, 信仰, and tradition that upholds and sustains Honduran culture and society.  

Mothers might direct not only the decision-making but also the bodily autonomy, 以及他们孩子的身份. Such intergenerational ritualized behavior is often explained through phrases like “that’s the way it’s always been”. This sacrifice of self can be understood as an exchange of reciprocity, I argue—the mother is expected to sacrifice herself for her children with her children as her life and they in turn recognize this sacrifice and exchange the devotion that they saw modeled to them as children.  

A phrase that stuck with me from one of my interviews was, “真爱永远, 我考虑一下我明天的工作decisión, pienso en cómo se reflejará en mis padres; nunca escuchas que fulano hizo tal y tal; no, 真爱永远西文, ‘escuchastes que hizo el hijo de fulano’” meaning, “总是, when considering and making a decision I think about how it will reflect on my parents—it’s never, 你听说过这个吗, 总是谁谁谁的孩子干的.“家庭关系是不可避免的. 

信仰也可能产生强大的影响. 而, 在洪都拉斯进行实地考察, I visited a public hospital in which I conducted interviews with medical personnel who described situations in which a patient—usually female—would deny any medical intervention—interpreted as a fear-informed decision by medical staff—out of belief that God would intervene and provide divine healing. 在这里, one’s agency could be displaced by 信仰 in the process of a patient understanding a medical 诊断 and accepting recommended medical intervention and 治疗. 

女性, as both patients and caregivers often relied on 信仰 and folk healing in lieu of Western biomedicine. This was often the case when there were gaps in their knowledge and understanding of a prognosis, 诊断, 治疗, or prescription— especially when women felt disregarded by their medical team.  

My ethnographic informants evidenced the ways in which Honduran women might act from a standpoint of suspicion as a protective measure of survival in moments of crisis. Many of my female participants believed their well-being and safety could only be ensured by hypervigilance and alternative practice. Their beliefs permeated in both their own medical decision and their influence on those closest to them in the home.  

虽然超出了这个博客的范围, individual suspicion of Western biomedical practices arises in response to broader forces of political instability, 腐败, 不受惩罚, 以及洪都拉斯的结构性暴力. Health is often weaponized as a political tool. As one informant commented, “An uneducated population and a sick population is easier to control.”  

结论, 在洪都拉斯, female power exists as a dominant influence in the home over generations and over the bodies and minds of their children. 传统支持影响力, 荣誉, and 信仰 and materialized beyond the home during medical decision-making.