Abstract Hope is sometimes dismissed as a feel‐good attitude that discourages people from taking meaningful action. In climate debates, many activists and scholars frame fear as a more effective motivator than hope. Yet in rural Namibia and Kenya, as well as in several recent social movements, hope is experienced as a vital force that sustains people in their efforts to create change. Drawing on these experiences and on phenomenology, we examine whether hope can productively address the climate crisis. We show that practical hope can transform situations by warding off despair, enabling achievement, and drawing others into collective action. We also describe how our interlocutors understand their heart as growing stronger when they confront hardship with hope, indicating an ontological shift toward a more resilient and hopeful self. We conclude that practical hope is effective, and that anthropology should communicate more hope‐filled narratives that contribute to an atmosphere in which transformative change becomes possible.
Abstract While young children globally are eager to help adults, older children display significant cross‑cultural differences: Western children often become reluctant to do chores, whereas Indigenous children in many Latin American communities maintain strong motivation. To elucidate the origins of these divergent trajectories, this study compares maternal ethnotheories, socialization goals, and practices concerning children's involvement in household chores among Münster middle‑class (MMC) mothers (Germany) and Kichwa Indigenous (KI) mothers (Ecuador). Mothers observed pre‑recorded videos of mother–child interactions during mealtime preparation from both cultural contexts and evaluated the observed practices while reflecting on their own socialization aims. Results revealed not only different views on socialization goals and practices but also striking differences in how housework is emotionally and relationally framed. MMC mothers emphasized children's freedom of choice, the provision of choices, and hands‑on task engagement, and described weekday routines as time‑pressured. KI mothers valued children's learning through observation, self‑sufficiency, and alignment with family responsibilities, viewing housework as a context for bonding. Interestingly, both groups characterized the interactional atmosphere in KI families as more harmonious than in MMC families. These findings suggest that cross‑cultural differences in children's prosocial motivation are rooted in divergent socialization goals, practices, as well as in the broader relational‑affective organization of everyday work.
Abstract This article examines the play activities of Yurakaré children in Bolivia. Using an ethnographic methodology of systematic observation, participant observation, and field notes, the study shows that children aged 2 to 7 most frequently engage in manipulative play, followed by gross motor play and imaginative play. Children typically play with peers or alone and rarely with adults. Their daily activities are characterized by a high degree of autonomy. Their play repertoire gradually transforms into subsistence‐oriented activities as children in their late childhood engage in practices such as fishing on their own initiative and within peer groups. This article describes one such case. The findings highlight how children autonomously and playfully align themselves with culturally contributive activities, while also demonstrating their agency to modify routine practices within the village.
Ethiopian migrant domestic workers frequently experience violence and abuse during employment, which can lead to serious emotional and mental distress. After returning to Ethiopia, some distressed women receive care at residential facilities specifically dedicated to rehabilitating returned domestic workers. In this paper, I examine the narratives from previously distressed domestic workers living in one such facility to understand how they view and respond to the distress of newly arrived returnees. I suggest that through embodied knowing they position the returnees' distress as familiar, and, importantly, as ambiguous and temporary. It is at this intersection of ambiguous-familiarity where I situate an ethics of care marked by an empathic understanding of having-been-there and what-will-be, a past and future oriented knowledge that precipitates caring responses marked by calm, gentle, and ordinary engagements-a therapeutic sociality. I demonstrate that while empathy may be central to other therapeutic communities across various histories and geographies, it is a foregrounding of embodied knowledge and the imaginative projection of what-will-be amongst previously distressed returned Ethiopian migrant domestic workers that is distinctive to their ethics of care, and may offer both a practical and ethical resource for rehabilitating returned domestic workers.
This paper proposes a reframing of how young men become embroiled-or not-in the systemic violence that infuses their daily lives. Most frameworks in health and social policy tend to approach violence as rooted in psycho-developmental problems and/or social and structural determinants. These approaches can underemphasize the relational specificities and institutional dynamics through which violence is reproduced and might otherwise be interrupted. Drawing on a 29-year ethnographic study embedded in the 1982 Pelotas Birth Cohort (Southern Brazil), which followed participants from age 15 into their early 40s, this paper puts our interlocutors' ways of theorizing violence into dialogue with Judith Butler's work on an ethics of non-violence. Examining how young people alternated between situated and categorical interpretations of violence, we demonstrate the conditions that enabled the former to chart new possibilities for non-violence. We show how young people and their parents unsettled prevailing psychological and social explanations of youth violence by reframing growing up amid violence situationally, as an ethical and political challenge. Two composite case-studies, Vicente and Raul, trace the contingent social and institutional conditions that nurtured a fragile but generative situated ethics and/or gave way to more categorical, discipline-as-care approaches. We close by considering what these insights can offer for more collectivist approaches in public health. Este artigo prop & otilde;e um novo enquadramento para compreender a maneira como os homens jovens se envolvem (ou n & atilde;o) na viol & ecirc;ncia sist & ecirc;mica que permeia seu cotidiano. A maior parte dos marcos conceituais nas pol & iacute;ticas sociais e de sa & uacute;de tende a abordar a viol & ecirc;ncia como algo enraizado em problemas psicossociais do desenvolvimento e/ou determinantes sociais e estruturais. Essas abordagens, no entanto, podem dar pouca & ecirc;nfase & agrave;s especificidades relacionais e & agrave;s din & acirc;micas institucionais por meio das quais a viol & ecirc;ncia & eacute; reproduzida e que, de outra forma, poderiam ser interrompidas. Com base em um estudo etnogr & aacute;fico de 29 anos, inserido na Coorte de Nascimentos de Pelotas de 1982 (sul do Brasil), que acompanhou os participantes desde os 15 anos at & eacute; o in & iacute;cio dos 40, este artigo coloca as formas como nossos interlocutores teorizam a viol & ecirc;ncia em di & aacute;logo com o trabalho de Judith Butler sobre uma & eacute;tica da n & atilde;o viol & ecirc;ncia. Ao examinar como os jovens alternavam entre interpreta & ccedil;& otilde;es situadas e categ & oacute;ricas da viol & ecirc;ncia, demonstramos as condi & ccedil;& otilde;es que permitiram & agrave;s primeiras tra & ccedil;ar novas possibilidades para a n & atilde;o viol & ecirc;ncia. Mostramos como os jovens e seus pais questionaram modelos que explicam a viol & ecirc;ncia juvenil por meio de uma lente psicol & oacute;gica ou social, enquadrando o processo de amadurecimento em meio & agrave; viol & ecirc;ncia de forma situacional e como um desafio & eacute;tico e pol & iacute;tico. Dois estudos de caso compostos, Vicente e Raul, tra & ccedil;am as condi & ccedil;& otilde;es sociais e institucionais contingentes que alimentaram uma & eacute;tica situada fr & aacute;gil, mas geradora, e/ou deram lugar a abordagens mais categ & oacute;ricas, que concebem a disciplina como cuidado. Conclu & iacute;mos refletindo sobre o que essas constata & ccedil;& otilde;es podem oferecer para abordagens mais coletivistas na sa & uacute;de p & uacute;blica. Este art & iacute;culo propone reenmarcar la forma en que los hombres j & oacute;venes se ven envueltos -o no- en la violencia sist & eacute;mica que impregna sus vidas cotidianas. La mayor & iacute;a de los marcos de referencia en materia de pol & iacute;ticas sociales y de salud tienden a abordar la violencia como un fen & oacute;meno arraigado en problemas psicoevolutivos y/o en determinantes sociales y estructurales. Estos enfoques pueden restar importancia a las especificidades relacionales y a las din & aacute;micas institucionales a trav & eacute;s de las cuales se reproduce la violencia y que, de otra manera, podr & iacute;an interrumpirla. Bas & aacute;ndonos en un estudio etnogr & aacute;fico de 29 a & ntilde;os integrado en la Cohorte de Nacimientos de Pelotas de 1982 (sur de Brasil), que sigui & oacute; a los participantes desde los 15 a & ntilde;os hasta principios de los 40, este art & iacute;culo pone en di & aacute;logo las formas en que nuestros interlocutores teorizan sobre la violencia con el trabajo de Judith Butler sobre una & eacute;tica de la no violencia. Al examinar c & oacute;mo los j & oacute;venes alternaban entre interpretaciones situadas y categ & oacute;ricas de la violencia, demostramos las condiciones que permitieron a las primeras trazar nuevas posibilidades para la no violencia. Mostramos c & oacute;mo los j & oacute;venes y sus padres cuestionaron los modelos que explican la violencia juvenil desde una perspectiva psicol & oacute;gica o social, enmarcando el hecho de crecer en medio de la violencia de manera situacional y como un desaf & iacute;o & eacute;tico y pol & iacute;tico. Dos estudios de caso compuestos, los de Vicente y Raul, trazan las condiciones sociales e institucionales contingentes que alimentaron una & eacute;tica situada, fr & aacute;gil pero generativa, y/o dieron paso a enfoques m & aacute;s categ & oacute;ricos, en los que la disciplina se entiende como cuidado. Concluimos considerando lo que estos hallazgos pueden aportar a enfoques m & aacute;s colectivistas en el & aacute;mbito de la salud p & uacute;blica.
