article

Slipping through sky holes: Yurok body imagery in northern California

Culture, medicine and psychiatry22 • Published In 1998 • Pages: 171-202

By: Ferreira, Mariana K. Leal (Mariana Kawall Leal).

Abstract
Yurok perceptions of the body as the inscribed surface of social and environmental change are explored in this paper. To the violence and brutality of Spaniards, fur traders, gold miners, American soldiers and Indian policies of the US government since the eighteenth century, Yurok women attribute the high incidence of degenerative diseases, drug abuse, and criminality in northern California. This piece contemplates the lives of eight generations of sixteen Yurok extended families, mapping intergenerational shifts in Yurok social relations and political practices. It considers the mutation of knowledge in the constitution of the natural and social sciences and the effects of this knowledge when implemented in Yurok country…. This historico-critical investigation shows how certain events mark their power and engrave memories in individuals' bodies. It is within a hybrid set of cross-cultural and interdisciplinary practices that a more fruitful understanding of Yurok body imagery can be fashioned.(p. 171).
Subjects
Morbidity
Theoretical orientation in research and its results
Kinship terminology
Cultural identity and pride
Racial identification
Public health and sanitation
Public welfare
Personality disorders
culture
Yurok
HRAF PubDate
2010
Region
North America
Sub Region
Northwest Coast and California
Document Type
article
Evaluation
Creator Type
Ethnologist
Document Rating
5: Excellent Primary Data
Analyst
John Beierle; 2010
Field Date
no date
Coverage Date
1850-1996
Coverage Place
North Pacific Coast, California, United States
Notes
Mariana K. Leal Ferreira
Includes bibliographical references (p.198-202)
LCCN
79642232
LCSH
Yurok Indians