Abstract

CHALLINOR, Elizabeth Pilar. Identity and belonging: beyond the material dimensions of social suffering. Etnográfica [online]. 2011, vol.15, n.3, pp.479-500. ISSN 0873-6561.

An anthropological view of social relations in the microcosms of a neighbourhood and a health centre reveals the limitations of using material poverty as the sole criterion for understanding processes of social suffering. In order to explore the ways in which social suffering may be experienced through identifications and belonging, ethnic and professional identity are both examined as examples of social identity. The dialectic relationship between social and personal identity shows how power is not deposited in people, but rather depends upon their social relations. Since the exercise of power is not guaranteed by the mere status of a given social category, we need to focus on the experiences and subjectivities to be found in the cracks between categories, always on guard to distinguish between categories of practice and categories of analysis,in order to widen our horizons regarding the nature of processes of social suffering.

Keywords : Cape Verde; identity; biomedicine.

        · abstract in Portuguese     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )