Reading: Scheper-Hughes, Death without Weeping: The Everyday Violence of Life in Brazil: Prologue, Introduction, Chapters 1-3, 6, 8-9, 10
Stacey, "Can There Be a Feminist Ethnography?" (article)

1. What are the details of Scheper-Hughes's position as a Peace Corps volunteer in the 1960s and 20 years later, as an anthropologist? What kinds of ethical and methodological dilemmas does she face in studying poverty and hunger?

2. What role does Scheper-Hughes suggest history plays in the circumstances of hunger in the Nordeste? How does her use of history compare to that of Lutz and Farmer?

3. What role does reciprocity play in sociocultural life and in the material aspects of survival in the Alto? What limitations does it pose? How does reciprocity here compare to the forms described by Stack, and to our broader discussion of a culture of poverty?

4. How do mothers respond to the deaths of their infants? What is Scheper-Hughes's position on maternal instinct? Are you persuaded by her arguments?

5. What does Scheper-Hughes mean by a political economy of emotions? What factors shape this kind of economy?

6. According to Judith Stacey, why does ethnography both appeal to and raise substantial problems for feminists? Can ethnography be feminist? Why or why not? Do you agree with her argument? How might she analyze Scheper-Hughes's book?

 

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