Abuse, Suffering, and Resistance in A Private Family Matter: Rethinking Gendered Approaches to Domestic Violence

Abstract

Anthropologists writing on domestic violence often focus on the abusive agency of male perpetrators or the suffering and resistive agency of women victims who, determined to find themselves again, become survivors. In a case study of Cuban-American domestic violence, using the book A Private Family Matter, I consider abuse, suffering, and resistance as fluid categories of experience rather than as fixed categories of people. I take a creative view of agency, where each character creatively or manipulatively draws on culture in attempts to restructure his or her life. I conclude that imagination and cultural notions of discipline and control are far more important than other anthropologists have emphasized. The findings have practical application for solving domestic violence in the U.S. and contextualizing domestic violence as part of broader cultural phenomena.