“Bodies as suffering territory”: experiences of riverside women victims of scalping in the Brazilian Amazon

Abstract

To produce this ethnography, I sought to understand narratives and experiences in the context of pain and suffering of female fisherwomen and river dwellers who are victims of scalp avulsion in regions of the Amazon River. Scalp avulsion is a term from the biomedical field that refers to the tearing off of the scalp. In the context I investigated, this “accident” occurs when women’s hair gets entangled in the shaft of small boats built by skilled carpenters. The women victimized by this “accident,” which often happens when they are children or teenagers, find their lives drastically altered, suffering from social deprivation and abandoning education, spouses, and even family. Their work lives also suffer significant effects, as fishing becomes impracticable due to headaches and the high temperatures of the Northern region, which worsen the victims’ health conditions. The trajectories of these women are marked by therapeutic itineraries, including plastic surgeries, grafts, and the insertion of prosthetics, such as ears (which are also frequently affected), as well as the use of wigs, since scalp avulsion prevents natural hair from regrowing. Thus, it has been observed that victimized women, through these means, seek to reconstruct their bodies and become what they call “real women.” In this present work, I intend to reflect on these issues at the intersection of body, health, and emotions, from the perspective of social anthropology.