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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page essay that examines Nancy Scheper-Hughes' classic study of village life in western Ireland during the 1970s. The text is a richly detailed, yet overall sympathetic social analysis that explores the symptoms that indicate the village's decline, covering a wide variety of topics. However, the writer concentrates on the most controversial aspect of the study, which is Scheper-Hughes' connection between social structure in the village and a prevalence of schizophrenia. No additional sources cited.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khschire.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
the 1970s. Her text is a richly detailed, yet overall sympathetic social analysis that explores the symptoms that indicate the villages decline, covering such topics as emigration, malaise, unwanted celibacy,
damaging patterns of child rearing, fear of intimacy, suicide and schizophrenia. Scheper-Hughes explains in the early portion of her study that it seemed to her that the women of
western Ireland seemed less troubled and discontented with their lives than the men are. Therefore, a large portion of Scheper-Hughes study concentrated on bachelor farmers and on the young men
who fulfilled the role of caretaker to the traditional way of life. What Scheper-Hughes witnessed at this time was the steady decline of small-scale farming. However, this transitional period caught
many young men in a difficult social situation where they were made to feel obligated to stay home and run a farm, while also taking care of aging parents, and
to do so during a time when small-scale farming no longer offered any economic rewards. According to Scheper-Hughes (2000) there was a form of "sorting out" that occurred in
childhood, which is when the more vulnerable children were encouraged to remain and spend their lives on the family farm. Scheper-Hughes qualifies her statements in this regard stating that she
does not believe that parents saw nascent schizophrenia in these children, or anything of similar nature. Rather it seemed the children born later in life, or a son who considered
either "sweet" or "docile" were chosen for this role because they were perceived as being more malleable (Scheper-Hughes, 2000). Taking these factors into consideration, Scheper-Hughes, therefore, posits
that the high rate of schizophrenia experienced in western Ireland at that time was connected to the "double bind" theory of Gregory Bateson, who has written persuasively about the role
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