["Give her booze and she'll loosen up": gender violence in Northeast Brazilian forró lyrics and parties].

Violence against women is primarily a socially produced issue of gender-hierarchy cultural values. This study aimed to unveil the meanings assigned to sexual violence against women in the forró lyrics by adolescent boys living on the outskirts of Fortaleza, Ceará State, Brazil. Our point of departure was ethnomusicology, the theory of which contends that studies of regional songs and their performances transcend the geographic space in which they are performed, to the extent that they reflect universally disseminated practices in the legitimation of violence.

Perception of Candomble Practitioners About Herbal Medicine and Health Promotion in Ceará, Brazil.

Candomble, a Brazilian religion of African origin that worships Orishas, promotes "healing" assistance during its worship rituals using therapy with plants and beliefs. From its ancestry tradition, the respect and beware with nature are expressed. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the perception of ethnoecology and health promotion among Candomble practitioners from a Candomble temple in the state of Ceará, Brazil.

["Raw and charred flesh": the experience of burned women in Northeast Brazil].

In Northeast Brazil, death from burns is a widespread, pervasive threat to poor women. This anthropological study describes the experience of personal suffering among female burn patients. In 2009, six "information-rich" cases were investigated at the Burn Center in Fortaleza, Ceará State, Brazil.

Illness experiences of persons with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: self-perceived efficacy of home-based pulmonary rehabilitation.

This qualitative study explores the illness experiences, the efficacy of pulmonary rehabilitation as perceived by patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and their rationale for improvements in health. 23 patients participated in a daily, three-month home-based pulmonary rehabilitation. A pre-post self-perceived assessment of efficacy was conducted.

Dead-baby dreams, transfiguration and recovery from infant death trauma in northeast Brazil.

Maternal reactions to infant death in Northeast Brazil have been at the epicenter of anthropological debate since the 1980s. This ethnographic study of 45 death narratives by bereaved mothers collected from 1979-1989 in Pacatuba, Ceará, Brazil, refutes existing claims of mothers' "selective neglect" and "indifference" towards sick babies and emotionally empty grief response. I argue that through dead-baby dreams--and their imaginary transfiguration-grieving mothers alleviate infant death trauma.

"Stuck in the muck": an eco-idiom of distress from childhood respiratory diseases in an urban mangrove in Northeast Brazil.

Situated in neo-democratic globalizing Northeast Brazil, this anthropological study probes the role of ecological context in framing, experiencing, and expressing human distress. Ethnographic interviews, narratives, and "contextualized semantic analysis" reveal the lived experience of childhood respiratory diseases among 22 urban mangrove dwellers. Informants speak an "eco-idiom of respiratory distress" based on a popular "eco-logic", reflecting the harsh reality of "living in dampness".

[Care and chronic illness: family caregiver's viewpoint in northeast Brazil].

The provision of care causes stress in everyday family dynamics leading to physical, mental and emotional complications in caregivers and spouses' loss of liberty and/or overwork. Between March and November 2006, this anthropological research examined family caregiving in the context of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). By means of ethnographic interviews, illness narratives and participant observation, the scope was to describe family reorganization and coexistence with the disease and its evolution, caregiver perceptions about patient difficulties and limitations experienced and strategies employed to tackle their illness.

["Prisms of Perception": multiple readings of mass media health messages in Northeast Brazil].

This anthropological study from February 2009 to November 2010 revealed the comprehension and cultural critique of three mass media health campaigns in Northeast Brazil. Twenty-four ethnographic interviews were conducted, exploring the iconographic and semantic content of the campaigns in the Dendê community in Fortaleza, Ceará State, Brazil. The authors used Content Analysis; Systems of Signs, Significance, and Actions; and Contextualized Semantic Interpretation.

Balking blood pressure "control" by older persons of Bambuí, Minas Gerais State, Brazil: an ethno-epidemiological inquiry.

This ethno-epidemiological inquiry aims to comprehend hypertension-related experiences in the elderly population of Bambuí, in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. It combines ethnographic descriptions with statistical data. The subjective significance of factors associated with adequate arterial pressure control is explored.

[The evaluation of self-care workshops to carriers of chronic periodontitis: taking care of users and dentists].

The objective of this article is to evaluate the workshops of "accepting the patient" for dentists and of self-care for carriers of chronic periodontitis. The patients assisted at the periodontics clinics of graduation and post-graduation Dentistry courses and periodontics specialty students, in Fortaleza, Ceará State, Brazil, took part of educative workshops. A field diary was done in all workshops.

[Multiple perceptions of infant mortality in Ceará State, Brazil].

This qualitative study analyzes the perceptions of various social actors towards infant mortality and the program to reduce it in Ceará State, Northeast Brazil. The study compares two municipalities (counties) that showed opposite infant mortality trends from 1993 to 1997, during which time Ceará achieved international visibility for having reduced infant mortality statewide. A total of 48 semi-structured interviews with four groups of key informants health system managers, community health agents, mothers who had lost a child, and neighbor women with children in the same age bracket and content analysis revealed "multiple conflicting voices" on the issue.

Stigma, deforming metaphors and patients' moral experience of multibacillary leprosy in Sobral, Ceará State, Brazil.

In response to the call for a new Science of Stigma, this anthropological study investigates the moral experience of patients diagnosed with severe multibacillary leprosy. From 2003 to 2006, fieldwork was conducted in the so-called 'United-States-of-Sobral', in Ceará State, Northeast Brazil. Sobral is highly endemic for leprosy, despite intensified eradication efforts and a 30% increase in primary care coverage since 1999.

[Breath of life: experience with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in the context of urban poverty in Fortaleza, Ceará State, Brazil].

This is an anthropological study on the experience of living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) for low-income individuals in the city of Fortaleza, Ceará State, Brazil. From March to November 2006, we conducted case studies of six patients, using ethnographic interviews, illness narratives, and participant-observation during hospital treatment and home visits. Thematic context analysis and contextualized semantic analysis were used to link individual experience to system of significance, actions taken, and structural constraints.

Infant death and interpretive violence in Northeast Brazil: taking bereaved Cearense mothers' narratives to heart.

This study investigates bereaved mothers' ethnoetiologies of avoidable infant deaths in Northeast Brazil. It critically examines the anthropological debate concerning "selective maternal negligence" as a relevant explanation for high infant mortality, based on an analysis of preexisting data. From 2003 to 2006, 316 ethnographic interviews collected by the author from 1979 to 1989 in six communities in Ceará State were retrieved.

Cultural significance of primary teeth for caregivers in Northeast Brazil.

This anthropological study critically evaluates Brazilian caregivers' symbolic production and significance of their malnourished offspring's primary teeth, as well as their own, and describes popular dental practices. From January to June 2004, ethnographic interviews of 27 poor, low-literacy mothers were conducted at a public Malnutrition Treatment Center in Fortaleza, Ceará State. Participant observation of clinical pathways and home environments supplemented the data.

[Patients' complaints of verbal abuse by health professionals during hospital care in Northeast Brazil].

The current anthropological study focuses on the assessment by patients/citizens concerning the conduct of health professionals in a public general hospital in Fortaleza, Ceará State, Brazil. From January to July 2005 we tracked 13 key informants during hospitalization and analyzed their narratives of the experience. According to our observations, patients develop definite opinions of the caregivers' gestures and expressions during the entire process.

[Popular knowledge related to back pain in northeastern Brazilian women].

Analyzing and understanding people's conceptions and actions regarding back pain is relevant since they can be part of the disease's explanation and cure. The nature of this study is qualitative with an anthropological focus. It was carried out from January to February, 2005 with nine women between 45 and 58 years of age with chronic back pains who participated in a health support group for menopausal women in a teaching institution in Fortaleza, Ceará.

[Inequality and damaged teeth: oral sequelae from living in poverty in the Dendê community, Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil].

This anthropological study focuses on the experience of dental disease in the context of poverty in Northeast Brazil. For six months in 2004, ethnographic interviews, narratives, and participatory observation were conducted with 31 residents of the low-income Dendê neighborhood in Fortaleza, Ceará, and the results were analyzed using a hermeneutic-dialectic method. Precarious living conditions make healthcare a difficult priority.

[Cultural aspects in the understanding of chronic periodontitis: a qualitative study].

This study aimed to analyze the concepts, beliefs, attitudes, and explanatory models related to chronic periodontitis among individuals with this disease in order to facilitate communications between dentists and patients and foster conscientious treatment adherence. The study sample consisted of 20 patients from the Periodontics Specialization Courses at Fortaleza University and the Brazilian Dental Association in Fortaleza, Ceará State. Data were gathered from October 2004 to January 2005.

["Birth weakness": cultural meanings of maternal impressions for infant health in Northeast Brazil].

Pregnancy encompasses socio-cultural, historical, and affective dimensions that process various meanings in women's bodies. Each society constructs popular concepts, practices, and explanatory models that differ from the biomedical model and aim to protect the mother and fetus and foster a healthy pregnancy. This qualitative study, based on interpretative anthropology, unveils the experiences of 27 poor women and their repercussions on the malnutrition of their infants, treated at a Childhood Malnutrition Treatment Center in Fortaleza, Northeast Brazil.

"Tooth worms", poverty tattoos and dental care conflicts in Northeast Brazil.

While medical anthropologists have studied doctor-patient clinical conflicts during the last 25-30 years, dentist-patient communication clashes have received scant attention to date. Besides structural barriers and power inequities, such conceptual differences further dehumanize dental care and lower service quality. Potential for dentist-patient discordance is greater in developing regions--such as Northeast Brazil--where there exists a wider socio-economic gap between professionals and laypersons.