Lives of Violence and Vengeance: Life Stories of Older Oaxacan Adults

Abstract

This qualitative research identifies and analyzes emotions linked to affective experiences and cultural aspects of experiences of violence in 219 older adults of eight Indigenous groups in Oaxaca, Mexico. Life stories are examined from perspectives of cultural gerontology, anthropology of emotions and critical medical anthropology with a gender perspective. Family violence, structural violence in daily life, gendered violence, inter-village and state violence, blood vengeance and the contribution of male alcoholization are examined. An understanding of the experiences of violence in the lives of older adults permits an improved knowledge and understanding of the emotional culture, social problems and the community.

Acknowledgments

We wish to acknowledge travel support received for presentations of the advances of this work from:

The British Council

El Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Project PAPIIT DGAPA-UNAM IN300817

This study is a product of “Ama y ora- el único medicamento para la vida”: Representaciones y practicas de los procesos salud-enfermedad-atención de adultos mayores de Oaxaca [“Love and prayer – Life’s only medicine”: Representations and practices of the health/illness/care processes of older adults of Oaxaca] IISSP/EHPSE/02/2017, Universidad de la Sierra Sur, Instituto de Investigación Sobre la Salud Pública.

A special thanks to L.E. Hilaria Jarquin Cruz for the organization of the data.

Disclosure statement

This research did not receive any grants from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. The authors have no conflicts of interest.

Ethics

All procedures were in accord with the ethical norms in the Mexican General Law of Health in Matters of Health Research and the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975 and its amendments. The identity of the participants will remain anonymous and confidential. All participants gave written consent to the inclusion of material pertaining to themselves. All participants acknowledge that they cannot be identified via the article and that they have been fully anonymized.

Funding

The authors reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.