The nature of nerves is the subject of a growing and dynamic body of anthropological research. The term nerves is often conceptualized as hard to define. Its meaning carries ambiguities, inconsistencies, and variation, although it is connected to reactions to the hardships of life. In the West, it is often associated with psychiatric problems. In this study, the researcher unveiled peoples’ pragmatic use of the term nerves through diverse social settings in a coastal community in Northern Norway. The term was connected to psychological or psychiatric problems, privacy, and stigma, but had the capacity to communicate a continuum from normal emotional problems to severe mental illness. This study also showed the effect of the term in encounters between patients and professional health workers.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Austreim, L. (1994). Vi står han ikkje alltid av [We do not always stand up in the storm]. Jyvaskyla, Finland: Gummerus Printing.
2.
Bang, T. (1994). Vi som har dårlige nerver... Personer med alvorlige psykiske lidelser i et lokalsamfunn. En analyse [We who have bad nerves. Persons with severe mental illness in a local community]. Hovedoppgave sosialantropologi, University of Bergen, Norway.
3.
Barth, F. (1992). Towards greater naturalism in conceptualizing society. In A. Kuper (Ed.), Conceptualizing society (pp. 17-33). London: Routledge.
4.
Barth, F. (1994). A personal view of present tasks and priorities in cultural and social anthropology. In R. Borofsky (Ed.), Assessing cultural anthropology (pp. 349-362). New York: McGraw-Hill.
5.
Borofsky, R. (1994). On the knowledge and knowing of cultural activities. In R. Borofsky (Ed.), Assessing cultural anthropology (pp. 331-348). New York: McGraw-Hill.
6.
Brox, O. (1965). Natural conditions, inheritance, and marriage in a North Norwegian fjord. Folk, 1, 35-45.
7.
Brox, O. (1978). Sosiale endringer i marginale bygdesamfunn. En komparativ analyse [Social change in marginal communities: A comparative analysis]. In T. Thuen. & C. Wadel, (Eds.), Lokale samfunn og offentlig planlegging [Local communities and public planning] (pp. 333-354). Tromsø, Norway: Universitetsforlaget.
8.
Brox, O. (1984). Nord-norge. Fra almenning til koloni [Northern Norway: From common to colony]. Oslo, Norway: Universitetsforlaget.
9.
Camino, L. (1989). Nerves, worriation, and Black women: A community study in the American South. In D. Davis & S. Low (Eds.), Gender, health, and illness: The case of nerves (pp. 203-222). New York: Hemisphere.
10.
Clark, M. (1989). Nevra in a Greek village: Idiom, metaphor, symptom, or disorder? In D. Davis & S. Low (Eds.), Gender, health, and illness: The case of nerves (pp. 103-126). New York: Hemisphere.
11.
Davis, D. (1983). Blood and nerves: An ethnographic focus on menopause. St. John’s, Canada: Memorial University of Newfoundland Institute of Social and Economic Research.
12.
Davis, D. (1989). George Beard and Lydia Pinkham: Gender, class, and nerves in late 19th-century America. In D. Davis & S. Low (Eds.), Gender, health, and illness: The case of nerves (pp. 1-22). New York: Hemisphere.
13.
Davis, D. (1997). Blood and nerves revisited: Menopause and the privatization of the body in a Newfoundland postindustrial fishery. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 11(1), 3-20.
14.
Davis, D. , & Guarnaccia, P. (1989). Introduction: Health culture and the nature of nerves. Medical Anthropology, 11(1), 1-13.
15.
Davis, D. , & Joakimsen, L. (1997). Nerves as status and nerves as stigma: Idioms of distress and social action in Newfoundland and Northern Norway. Qualitative Health Research, 7, 370-390.
16.
Davis, D. , & Low, S. (1989). Gender, health, and illness: The case of nerves. New York: Hemisphere.
17.
Davis, D. , & Whitten, R. (1988). Medical and popular traditions of nerves. Social Science & Medicine, 26, 1209-1221.
18.
Finerman, R. (1989). The burden of responsibility: Duty, depression, and nervios in Andean Ecuador. In D. Davis & S. Low (Eds.), Gender, Health, and Illness (pp. 49-66). New York: Hemisphere.
19.
Finkler, K. (1994). Women in pain: Gender and morbidity in Mexico. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
20.
Foss, N. (1994). Helse på dagsorden. En historie om helsearbeidere som ønsker å skape økt trivsel blant folk flest [A story of health workers who want to create a better life for people]. Tromsø, Norway: Hovedoppgave sosialantropolgi, University of Tromsø.
21.
Geertz, C. (1973). Ethos, world view, and the analysis of sacred symbols. In C. Geertz (Ed.), The interpretation of cultures (pp. 126-141). New York: Basic Books.
22.
Good, B. (1997). Studying mental illness in context: Local, global or universal?Ethos, 25, 230-248.
23.
Goodenough, W. H. (1994). Toward a working theory of culture. In R. Borofsky (Ed.), Assessing cultural anthropology (pp. 262-275). New York: McGraw-Hill.
24.
Guarnaccia, P. , & Farias, P. (1988). The social meanings of nervios: A case study of a Central American woman. Social Science & Medicine, 26, 1223-1231.
25.
Gullestad, M. (1996). From obedience to negotiation: Dilemmas in the transmission of values between the generations in Norway. Journal of the Royal Anthropologic Institute, 2, 25-42.
26.
Holtedahl, L. (1986). Hva mutter gjør er alltid viktig [What mother does is always important]. Tromsø: Universitetsforlaget.
27.
Jenkins, J. (1988a). Concepts of schizophrenia as a problem of nerves: A cross-cultural comparison of Mexican-Americans and Anglo-Americans. Social Science & Medicine, 26, 1233-1243.
28.
Jenkins, J. (1988b). Ethnopsychiatric interpretations of schizophrenic illness. The problem of nervios within Mexican-American families. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, 12, 301-329.
29.
Koss-Chioimo, J. (1989). Experience of nervousness and anxiety disorders in Puerto Rican women: Psychiatric and ethnopsychological perspectives. In D. Davis & S. Low (Eds.), Gender, health, and illness: The case of nerves (pp. 153-180). New York: Hemisphere.
30.
Lock, M. (1989). Words of fear, words of power: Nerves and the awakening of political consciousness. Medical Anthropology, 11(1), 79-90.
31.
Low, S. (1981). The meaning of nervios: A sociocultural analysis of symptom presentation in San Jose, Costa Rica. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, 5, 25-47.
32.
Low, S. (1989). Gender, emotion, and nervios in urban Guatemala. In D. Davis & S. Low (Eds.), Gender, health, and illness: The case of nerves (pp. 23-48). New York: Hemisphere.
33.
Low, S. (1994). Embodied metaphors: Nerves as lived experience. In T. J. Csordas (Ed.), Embodiment and experience: The existential ground of culture and self (pp. 139-162). New York: Cambridge University Press.
34.
Ngokwey, N. (1995). Naming and grouping illnesses in Feira (Brazil). Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, 19, 385-408.
35.
Poole, R. (1994). Dialogue and the interpretation of illness. Oxford, UK: Berg.
36.
Rebhun, L. A. (1993). Nerves and emotional play in Northeast Brazil. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 7, 131-151.
37.
Rudie, I. (1969-1970). Household organization, adaptive process, and restrictive form: A viewpoint on economic change. Folk, 1112, 185-200.
38.
Rudie, I. (1982). Utkantproblematikk, kjønnsrolleproblematikk og husholdsanalyser [District problematics, gender-roles and household-analysis]. In R. Nilsen, J. E. Reiersen, & N. Aarsether (Eds.), Folkemakt og regional utvikling. Oslo, Norway: Pax.
39.
Saugestad, S. (1989). Kvinnekultur og arbeidsliv [Female culture and working life]. In O. Brox & M. Gullestad (Eds.), På norsk grunn. Sosialantropologiske studier av Norge, nordmenn og det norske. Oslo, Norway: Ad Notam.
40.
Saugestad Larsen, S. (1980). Omsorgsbonden [The career-farmer]. Tidsskrift for samfunnsforskning, 3-4, 283-296.
41.
Scheper-Hughes, N. (1987). “Mental” in “Southie”: Individual, family, and community responses to psychosis in South Boston. Culture, medicine, and psychiatry, 11, 53-78.
42.
Scheper-Hughes, N. (1994). Embodied knowledge: Thinking with the body in critical medical anthropology. In R. Borofsky (Ed.), Assessing cultural methodology (pp. 229-242). NY: McGraw-Hill.
43.
Sluka, J. (1989). Living on their nerves: Nervous debility in Northern Ireland. In D. Davis & S. Low (Eds.), Gender, health, and illness: The case of nerves (pp.127-152). New York: Hemisphere.
44.
Wikan, U. (1990). Managing turbulent hearts: A Balinese formula for living. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
45.
Wikan, U. (1992). Beyond the words: The power of resonance. American Ethnologist, 19, 460-482.
