It's hard to take this work seriously when it's so full of errors. The author became a self-proclaimed Brazilianist overnight and it shows. A good ethnography requires more than what went into this work, although it's an interesting topic and a great job of anthropological showboating.

Giving birth to a healthy human being and watching it grow into personhood is something most Americans take for granted. Many cultures the world over see the concepts of `personhood' and `human-ness' very differently than we view them here in the U.S. Americans would likely see granting responsibility to a neonate his/her own will to live or die as a form of abuse. This culture-bound perspective lies in stark contrast to societies that grant (often out of economic necessity) the newborn the agency to determine for his/herself the right to live or die.

The book Death Without Weeping by Nancy Scheper-Hughes and the article "When Does Life Begin?" by Lynn Morgan explore the ideas of `human-ness' and `personhood' from two different perspectives. The examination of both works leaves me to ponder the stark contrast between my own culture and that of the Alto de Cruziero, as described by Hughes, while begging the question of whether babies of the Alto are pre-social persons.

Lynn Morgan's article attempts to highlight the oftentimes subtle and arbitrary distinction between `human' and `person.' She argues that humans are biological beings while persons are humans that have been socialized into their culture. By Morgan's definition, a person has a socially recognized moral status and by virtue of certain rites of passage, assumes rights and responsibilities in society. Additionally she describes a pre-social person as a living being that must endure said rituals and steps to become a person. Unlike Morgan's cross-cultural survey, Hughes describes one society, the poverty-stricken region of the Alto do Cuiziero. The women of the Alto face an astonishingly high infant mortality rate. Perhaps that economic-based reality figures prominently in the notion that, unlike here in the U.S., the neonates are seen as pre-social persons with the right (and responsibility) to determine whether they will live or die.
In the minds of Alto parents, the neonates are born into the world having already made the decision whether or not to live. Any weak or otherwise unhealthy baby is said to have, "Come into the world with an aversion to life" (Hughes: 368). The weak or ill babies are "too under demanding, too willing, and too likely to die" (Hughes: 386). Says one Alto mother; " I think that if they were always weak, they wouldn't be able to defend themselves in life. So it is really better to let the weak ones die." (Hughes: 369). Hughes suggests that babies are born knowing that their life will be difficult, even if they survive the first year or so when they are finally seen as humans. Says another mother of the Alto, " If she died, it was because she herself, on seeing what was ahead, what was in store for her, she decided to die." (Hughes: 370).
Perhaps the babies are presumed to know that it will be easier on their families if they die early on. Since the parents face staggering poverty and blight, it is clear that certain economic factors control the allocation of love as a resource. A compelling reality exists for all mothers in the poor shantytown according to Nancy Hughes: "part of learning to mother on the Alto includes knowing when to let go of a child who shows that he wants to die." (Hughes: 364). Hughes clearly believes that the relationship between mother and child in the Alto is based largely on a culture of poverty. She addresses the concept of "Mother Love" as being learned behavior--and not biological instinct- that enables the women of the Alto to cope with the inevitable deaths of many of their young.
It is difficult to definitively answer the question of whether babies are `person' or `human' because different cultures view and define various social statuses differently. Lynn Morgan states: "the infant must `prove' itself worthy of personhood; first by managing to survive, then by exhibiting the vigor and health of one destined to become a functioning member of the community. If it survives and thrives, it is ready to pass through the social birth canal, to be ceremoniously welcomed as a person into the community." Other than a physical evaluation upon their birth, the babies of the Alto do not have the luxury of proving their survivability to their parents. If seen as not healthy or strong enough, they do not receive the resources of care necessary to survive. Morgan also states: "Social birth gives the neonate a moral status and binds it securely to a social community." The so-called social birth of Alto babies occurs simultaneously with their biological birth. Unlike in the U.S., they are pre-social persons born with the knowledge and the agency to decide if they live or die.

Giving birth to a healthy human being and watching it grow into personhood is something most Americans take for granted. Many cultures the world over see the concepts of `personhood' and `human-ness' very differently than we view them here in the U.S. Americans would likely see granting responsibility to a neonate his/her own will to live or die as a form of abuse. This culture-bound perspective lies in stark contrast to societies that grant (often out of economic necessity) the newborn the agency to determine for his/herself the right to live or die.

The book Death Without Weeping by Nancy Scheper-Hughes and the article "When Does Life Begin?" by Lynn Morgan explore the ideas of `human-ness' and `personhood' from two different perspectives. The examination of both works leaves me to ponder the stark contrast between my own culture and that of the Alto de Cruziero, as described by Hughes, while begging the question of whether babies of the Alto are pre-social persons.

Lynn Morgan's article attempts to highlight the oftentimes subtle and arbitrary distinction between `human' and `person.' She argues that humans are biological beings while persons are humans that have been socialized into their culture. By Morgan's definition, a person has a socially recognized moral status and by virtue of certain rites of passage, assumes rights and responsibilities in society. Additionally she describes a pre-social person as a living being that must endure said rituals and steps to become a person. Unlike Morgan's cross-cultural survey, Hughes describes one society, the poverty-stricken region of the Alto do Cuiziero. The women of the Alto face an astonishingly high infant mortality rate. Perhaps that economic-based reality figures prominently in the notion that, unlike here in the U.S., the neonates are seen as pre-social persons with the right (and responsibility) to determine whether they will live or die.
In the minds of Alto parents, the neonates are born into the world having already made the decision whether or not to live. Any weak or otherwise unhealthy baby is said to have, "Come into the world with an aversion to life" (Hughes: 368). The weak or ill babies are "too under demanding, too willing, and too likely to die" (Hughes: 386). Says one Alto mother; " I think that if they were always weak, they wouldn't be able to defend themselves in life. So it is really better to let the weak ones die." (Hughes: 369). Hughes suggests that babies are born knowing that their life will be difficult, even if they survive the first year or so when they are finally seen as humans. Says another mother of the Alto, " If she died, it was because she herself, on seeing what was ahead, what was in store for her, she decided to die." (Hughes: 370).
Perhaps the babies are presumed to know that it will be easier on their families if they die early on. Since the parents face staggering poverty and blight, it is clear that certain economic factors control the allocation of love as a resource. A compelling reality exists for all mothers in the poor shantytown according to Nancy Hughes: "part of learning to mother on the Alto includes knowing when to let go of a child who shows that he wants to die." (Hughes: 364). Hughes clearly believes that the relationship between mother and child in the Alto is based largely on a culture of poverty. She addresses the concept of "Mother Love" as being learned behavior--and not biological instinct- that enables the women of the Alto to cope with the inevitable deaths of many of their young.
It is difficult to definitively answer the question of whether babies are `person' or `human' because different cultures view and define various social statuses differently. Lynn Morgan states: "the infant must `prove' itself worthy of personhood; first by managing to survive, then by exhibiting the vigor and health of one destined to become a functioning member of the community. If it survives and thrives, it is ready to pass through the social birth canal, to be ceremoniously welcomed as a person into the community." Other than a physical evaluation upon their birth, the babies of the Alto do not have the luxury of proving their survivability to their parents. If seen as not healthy or strong enough, they do not receive the resources of care necessary to survive. Morgan also states: "Social birth gives the neonate a moral status and binds it securely to a social community." The so-called social birth of Alto babies occurs simultaneously with their biological birth. Unlike in the U.S., they are pre-social persons born with the knowledge and the agency to decide if they live or die.

As readers, people should always be careful about the way they write a review of a book such as this: it is not in any way shape or form a representation of "life in Brazil." It is a representation of what life in some, I repeat, some poorer areas of Brazil can be like... but even so, being originally from Brazil and having traveled in my country, I can give anyone a million examples of poor or people who live under the poverty line, who are loving, decent, clean, concerned with the well-being and protection of others first before their own. I despise it when people file anything under the "generalization" category about other countries, and Brazil seems to always get a bad wrap in this sense. Brazil is an amazing country, culturally rich and diverse, geographically gorgeous and varied, and when speaking of a country with 186+ million inhabitants, how can anyone generalize under any one specific term about this or that factor? Not all mothers -- by a very very long stretch -- in Brazil fit the mode portrayed in "Death without weeping," and hope to have made that absolutely clear here: misinformation of this kind is absurd, and using the subhead "The Violence in Everyday Brazil" even more irreponsible from such a noted author.

Scheper-Hughes not only crafts a thorough, complex ethnography, but she takes a risk by putting a piece of herself into it as well. Here is the introduction I wrote for a term paper about this book:

Anthropologist Nancy Scheper-Hughes covers rough territory in Death Without Weeping, an ethnography about sugar cane workers in Northeastern Brazil. In chapters eight and nine she discusses the concepts of maternity and infanticide in a manner that dissolves their seemingly diametric natures and exposes an enigma of conflict and confluence inherent in their layered reality. But how can we contrast our established notions of maternity and infanticide with Scheper-Hughes' statements about them in a context that is emically true to the population her research is based on? Some things about maternity might seem clear: positive maternity encompasses nurturance and doting love, while negative maternity suggests neglect and even murder; yet Scheper-Hughes brings into question commonly held notions about the biological necessities and cultural expectations of maternity that reveal contradictions, blind alleys, and misleading parochial assumptions. This ethnography about the sugarcane workers of the Alto do Cruzeiro slum in the town of Bom Jesus, Brazil causes us to re-evaluate our understanding of maternity in the face of established cultural and biological contexts, and invites a more detailed, elemental, philosophical gaze. The observations made in Death Without Weeping force us to retreat in search of a neutral ground free from the biases we may hold about `American' or `Brazilian' maternity, and abandon our fear of naivety by asking, what in fact is maternity, and what do we know about it?

A gripping book, a masterful ethnography.

This book doesn't tell us anything we don't already know. Also it tries to interpret events. Anybody with internet access can read about favelas of Rio and the "parallel government" that rules the shanty-towns.

In fact, at least two groups in Rio give tours of these slums. And you will find things quite peaceful (the tour operators have not been injured in over 15 yrs of giving tours).

In a word: it's all about (drug) money.

This book doesn't tell us anything we don't already know. Also it tries to interpret events. Anybody with internet access can read about favelas of Rio and the "parallel government" that rules the shanty-towns.

In fact, at least two groups in Rio give tours of these slums. And you will find things quite peaceful (the tour operators have not been injured in over 15 yrs of giving tours).

In a word: it's all about (drug) money.

Scheper-Hughes's book is certainly the most impacting book I have read in months. I cannot call it entertaining but it is riveting in presenting a mind-boggling situation of abject poverty in Northeastern Brazil with its consequent infant and child mortality and impacts on the family structure.

Death Without Weeping is a very original, very relevant, and carefully written book although not perfect. The book is the result of extensive field research by Dr. Scheper-Hughes, Professor of Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley but nevertheles very readable. I could understand and enjoy most of it without having had extensive training in Anthropology.

The author does a wonderful job in translating Alto do Cruzeiro reality into something the average American can understand. This "translation" certainly adds a bias but is still indispensable in my opinion. I consider that the author's religious beliefs strongly affected the outcome of the book and that I think could have been avoided.

I understand that the author has it's ethics and wouldn't reveal in the text the actual location name for Bom Jesus da Mata. I'm not tied by the same ethics so I can tell it: Bom Jesus da Mata is actually Timbauba, a 60,000 inhabitants town on the outskirts of Recife. The book subtitle, "The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil" couldn't be worse. Timbauba is not Brazil. It has its own very specific problems and to read the book without understanding the great diversity among Brazil's regions would be very unfair to the country. Even in a local scale, Alto do Cruzeiro is not Timabuba and Timbauba is not Pernambuco. If you read the book don't rule out the possibility of going down to Brazil and having a wonderful time there. Tourism is a very good way of alleviating if not solving the problems presented in the book.

I have read now dozens of books written in English by the so-called Brazilianists who most of the times are not Brazilians themselves. Most of the books have the same problem of Death Without Weeping: there's a total sloppiness in spelling the Portuguese words. I can't believe UC Berkeley couldn't hire a Brazilian graduate student to proofread the originals. Moreover, the Geraldo Vandre quote on the very first page of the book, which gives the book its name was completely fabricated. Disparada is a great song and for writing songs such as "Disparada" and "Para Nao Dizer Que Nao Falei Das Flores", Geraldo Vandre was captured and tortured by the military dictatorship in Brazil. He was later released but severely braindamaged. However, the verses Scheper-Hughes quoted do not exist in "Disparada".

I was shocked to learn on the book's Epilogue who Seu Jacques, whom the book is dedicated to, was. But this suspense I'm not going to break.

Leonardo Alves - Houghton, MI - October 2002

Scheper-Hughes's book is certainly the most impacting book I have read in months. I cannot call it entertaining but it is riveting in presenting a mind-boggling situation of abject poverty in Northeastern Brazil with its consequent infant and child mortality and impacts on the family structure.

Death Without Weeping is a very original, very relevant, and carefully written book although not perfect. The book is the result of extensive field research by Dr. Scheper-Hughes, Professor of Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley but nevertheles very readable. I could understand and enjoy most of it without having had extensive training in Anthropology.

The author does a wonderful job in translating Alto do Cruzeiro reality into something the average American can understand. This "translation" certainly adds a bias but is still indispensable in my opinion. I consider that the author's religious beliefs strongly affected the outcome of the book and that I think could have been avoided.

I understand that the author has it's ethics and wouldn't reveal in the text the actual location name for Bom Jesus da Mata. I'm not tied by the same ethics so I can tell it: Bom Jesus da Mata is actually Timbauba, a 60,000 inhabitants town on the outskirts of Recife. The book subtitle, "The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil" couldn't be worse. Timbauba is not Brazil. It has its own very specific problems and to read the book without understanding the great diversity among Brazil's regions would be very unfair to the country. Even in a local scale, Alto do Cruzeiro is not Timabuba and Timbauba is not Pernambuco. If you read the book don't rule out the possibility of going down to Brazil and having a wonderful time there. Tourism is a very good way of alleviating if not solving the problems presented in the book.

I have read now dozens of books written in English by the so-called Brazilianists who most of the times are not Brazilians themselves. Most of the books have the same problem of Death Without Weeping: there's a total sloppiness in spelling the Portuguese words. I can't believe UC Berkeley couldn't hire a Brazilian graduate student to proofread the originals. Moreover, the Geraldo Vandre quote on the very first page of the book, which gives the book its name was completely fabricated. Disparada is a great song and for writing songs such as "Disparada" and "Para Nao Dizer Que Nao Falei Das Flores", Geraldo Vandre was captured and tortured by the military dictatorship in Brazil. He was later released but severely braindamaged. However, the verses Scheper-Hughes quoted do not exist in "Disparada".

I was shocked to learn on the book's Epilogue who Seu Jacques, whom the book is dedicated to, was. But this suspense I'm not going to break.

Leonardo Alves - Houghton, MI - October 2002

I have seen death without weeping. The destiny of the Northeast is death. Cattle they kill, But to the people they do something worse. --Geraldo Vandre, Disparada

"Death Without Weeping: Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil" is a brilliant anthropological and sociological depiction of life in the Nordeste region of Brazil. In Death Without Weeping, Scheper-Hughes carefully analyzes the Mother-Child relationship in a region of Brazil with the highest infant mortality rate in Latin America. Centered in the village of Alto do Cruziero, Scheper-Hughes continues to work with the community she had first joined as a Peace Corps volunteer decades before. Rekindling her relationship with the villagers and the land, she takes a new perspective to study the emotional and physical strain on a region where every life is touched with the pain of infant mortality. She examines the frightening reality of a place where mothers have absolutely no safety net and cannot protect their children from the disease, hunger, and destitute living conditions.

Scheper-Hughes further discusses the role of international corporations and their influence (usually negative) in the Nordeste region.

Death Without Weeping is absolutely brilliant. Scheper-Hughes is at her finest, and her work is impeccable. This is one of the finest works of sociology and anthropology I have read.

Nancy Scheper-Hughes' book "Death Without Weeping" is an outstanding piece of a true anthropological approach to studying a difficult concept: Mothers in Brazil do not mourn for dead infants. Coming from America, it seems difficult to understand the lack of innate "Mother Love." Scheper-Hughes looks at both the political-economic problems in Brazil as a coutry as well as the beliefs and meanings that mothers living in a Shantytown place on their infants (dead or alive). By looking at records, talking to officials, and researching the history of Brazil, Nancy Scheper-Hughes is able to understand how the state of the political and econimic system in Brazil is partially responsible for the horrible deaths and indifferent mothers living in these shantytowns. Alternatively she has been able to get a true understanding of what meanings these women place on their infants death. By looking at both sides, the way Scheper-Hughes has done, we can obtain a better understanding of the true problem and how the people deal with it. Although Nancy Scheper-Hughes does not offer solutions in this book, she tells all of the clues needed to find a solution. Great Book!

Although this book is to be praised as a fine piece of scholarship and field work, I did not enjoy reading it that much. Here I will jump off into pure personal opinion. I think the author interceded way too much between the reader and what she observed in shantytown life in northeast Brazil, interpreting things for the reader from start to finish. I feel the reason she did so is because she was afraid to simply tell the reader what she observed, because she felt there were 999 chances out of a thousand that the reader would "not understand". Mostly the author "interpreted" without even telling the reader what the facts were which she was interpreting. It was obvious that the author had seen hundreds of stories of what a normal observer would call child neglect to the point of where the child died, yet it was like she was these people's mother and couldn't bear the thought of what she had seen as being, in some else's eyes, perhaps akin to murder. I wish she had given us the facts, and then she could have given us her opinion, while letting the reader make up their own mind. The real story of a culture where mothers starve their children to death every day would be fascinating, and then we could decide whether we wanted to forgive them or interpret the situation as does the auther. I'm not saying she's wrong, but she simply didn't give us the "real story", ie, all the facts. She may well be right, but the facts would be fascinating.

Michael Chesser

"Death Without Weeping" is perhaps the most profound & moving academic work I know from this decade, & contributes brilliantly to debates on many important current issues. It sets an extremely high standard of in-depth research, theoretical insight, political commitment and compassion.

Nancy Scheper-Hughes book "Death without Weeping" is an excellent anthropological account of life and survival in modern day Brazil. This book is definitely worthwhile. As a newcomer to Latin American studies or as a research tool to those well studied in this area, this book offers endless amounts of information. The facts are well coupled with excellent discussions involving specific individuals. I would absolutely recommend this book!!!!