Citation

Pedersen D, Kienzler H, Gamarra J. Cult. Med. Psychiatry 2010; 34(2): 279-300.

Affiliation

Douglas Institute Research Centre and Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, 6875 LaSalle Boulevard, Montreal, QC H4H1R3, Canada. duncan.pedersen@mcgill.ca

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s11013-010-9173-z

PMID

20405314

Abstract

This article examines some of the long-term health outcomes of extreme adversities and the ways in which social inequalities and idioms of distress are historically and socially produced in the Peruvian context. We describe how the highland Quechua of northern Ayacucho construct and experience expressions of distress and suffering such as pinsamientuwan (worrying thoughts, worries), ñakary (suffering) and llaki (sorrow, sadness), in a context of persistent social inequalities, social exclusion and a recent history of political violence. It is concluded that the multiple expressions of distress and suffering are closely related to past and current events, shaped by beliefs, core values and cultural norms and, in this process, transformed, recreated and invested with new meanings and attributions.

Language: en