Marriage, Divorce, and Distress in Northeast Brazil
Black Women's Perspectives on Love, Respect, and Kinship
Melanie A. Medeiros (Author)
9780813588247
Hardback, published 2 July 2018
222 pages, 1 table
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.454 kg
— Chronicle of Higher Education
"This innovative study illuminates Afro-Brazilian women's experiences in the realms of intimacy, marriage, and divorce. An important contribution!"
— Kia Lilly Caldwell, author of Health Equity in Brazil: Intersections of Gender, Race, and Policy
"From the opening vignette, this vibrant, conceptually sophisticated, and yet accessible ethnography draws us into the contested terrain of intimate relations and divorce in Northeast Brazil. Medeiros skillfully depicts the voices and experiences of rural, working-class women of African descent, helping us see how their lives are shaped both by their own strivings and by forces as diverse as telenovelas and ecotourism. Her work represents a valuable contribution to the emerging anthropology of divorce as well as to work on emotion, gender, race, class, companionate marriage, social suffering, and even the anthropology of tourism."
— Jennifer S. Hirsch, coauthor of The Secret: Love, Marriage and HIV
Using an intersectional approach, Marriage, Divorce, and Distress in Northeast Brazil explores rural, working-class, black Brazilian women's perceptions and experiences of courtship, marriage and divorce. In this book, women's narratives of marriage dissolution demonstrate the ways in which changing gender roles and marriage expectations associated with modernization and globalization influence the intimate lives and the health and well being of women in Northeast Brazil. Melanie A. Medeiros explores the women's rich stories of desire, love, respect, suffering, strength, and transformation.
Contents
1
Brogodó, Bahia, Brazil
2
Gender, Employment and Divorce
3
Telenovela Reception and the Rise of Modern Love and Companionate Marriage
4
Respect, Infidelity and Divorce
5
Marital Distress and Social Suffering
6
Matrifocal Kinship and Amor Verdadeiro
7
Conclusion
References
Index
Acknowledgments
About the Author
