Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil

great book but a little bit disturbing but overall good book to read i needed this book for my anthropology 314: global ethnography class

I took an anthropology class and I was assigned to read this book. It is large; very large. With that said, once you dive in, you will end up finishing the book much faster than you ever thought you could. It is interesting and the author does not repeat herself too often. She is an anthropologist, so a lot of the insight might be a little too in-depth for some. This book made me think. I guess my biggest gripe is being forced to read something so lengthy. The actual textbook is large, heavy, and uncomfortable to hold for long periods of time. I was lucky enough to buy the Kindle version after about page 20 which made reading it much more enjoyable.

In this brilliant ethnographic work, Nancy Scheper-Hughes situates us in a favela of Brazil's northeastern region. It is a world of abject poverty, exploitative economic relations, and unspoken racial divisions. While most ostensibly an inquiry into the region's exceptionally high infant mortality rate, the book is - in a broader sense - a critical analysis of the nature of motherhood.The unlikely heroines of the story are the women who 'overproduce' children, leave them unnamed until age two, and withhold care and affection from those who seem unlikely to survive. One cannot help but find their actions reprehensible. One also cannot help but empathize with their incredibly difficult lives and find inspiration in their resilience.This book is heartbreaking and will make you see the world in a new light.

I care deeply about the issues of gender and class inequality and the intense and troubling issues the people on the Alto face/faced. That being said the author, for all her work and dedication, is not a very good writer. Her thoughts are disorganized and incomplete. Luckily she makes up for it by providing 5 pages of writing where 1 would be sufficient. The stories of these people are heart breaking and it is well worth the read, but if you are reading it for a class, be aware that the author is a little scattered.

This was an amazing read.It was a requirement for one of my college classes and was painfully difficult to get through because of the extreme poverty that the author helplessly witnessed. It's one of the few books that I have read which inspired me to do additional research.For all of the happy-ending-story-loving people out there -- be warned! This is a very depressing read, but I would argue that feeling something from a book is better than nothing.

The book itself was in good condition however he story was just so so for me. If you are into world health you will love this book.

A fantastic book dictating the struggles of those suffering from poverty. Incredibly moving.

Great book examining the poverty and disparity in Brazil. Scheper-Hughes accounts were eye opening and really turned me on to the concept of global health.

This is a long book, and somewhat intimidating in sheer size, but don't let that put you off. It is very rewarding - and my world is bigger for having read it.In short, this is a rich, evocative, human, empathetic and scholarly exploration of the life of women in a Brazilian shanty town. At the core of the book is the question of how mothering is effected by living under conditions of chronic scarcity and political indifference. Scheper-hughes central thesis is that 'emotional scarcity' follows from scarcity of food, of clean water, of health and of opportunites. With conditions being horrendously tough, mothering becomes infused with pragmatism. It is heart-breaking and leaves us questioning the way we have sentimentalised mother in the west (see Sarah Blaffer Hrdy's Mother Nature for an evolutioanry take on this).However, this book is not only about mothering. It also takes us into the lives of these women in a deeply layered and holistic way so we get a glipse of the bigger context within which mothering occurs.In particular Scheper- Huges shows us understand how these communities came into being, descrives the toxic nature of the only work available to them, and emables us to glipse the deeply embodied nature of people's lives. She also shows, how the government, instead of tackling the salient issues (like hunger, contaminated water and exploitation), has reframed the suffering of these people as an 'illness' which can be kept at bay by tranquilisers.Highly recommended for anybody who is interested in getting an in-depth insight into the lives of others.

The book was in great condition !