59 pages • 1 hour read
Death Without Weeping
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Chapter 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 3 Summary: “Reciprocity and Dependency: The Double Ethic of Bom Jesus”
Chapter 3 of Death Without Weeping analyzes the "dual ethic" of life in Alto introduced in the previous chapter. This dual ethic refers to implicit guidelines governing behavior towards one's own class, and one's superiors. Broadly conceived, this dual ethic prescribes an ethos of pride, solidarity and kinship towards one's social equals, and a relationship of dependency to those higher on the social ladder. Through the stories of women in Alto, the author argues that this system, which encourages charity and solidarity between lower-class residents, manifests little more than resentment and dependency to these residents' social superiors. The author argues that this system is a vestige of the old planting system, which has been transformed through industrialization into an arrangement scarcely more equitable.
The moradores of Alto Cruzeiro illustrate the first ethic, living in what the author describes to be a ring of exchange and reciprocity among themselves. The author describes indepth the interconnectedness of this community, detailing efforts made to provide those more desperate with what they can spare, whether it be food, medicine, work, or even company. However, an unspoken expectation exists that no one among the community ought to be asked for what they cannot provide. Instead, a formal petition is made to the local patron―usually a wealthy landowner or functionary. These wealthier individuals are indirectly and implicitly responsible for the welfare of the less fortunate who work or live amongst them. The narrative describes one such story, that of Dona Irene, a middle-aged woman with a painful abscess, but with no means for its treatment. She meets the mayor, a wealthy man named Seu Félix, who sends her away. Dona Irene must go to Dona Carminha, her own patroa, or patron, to receive a "gift"―an advance from her own pay to pay for medicine.
The entire system, the author notes, evades formal structures and public policies for informal, personal networks. Indeed, the difference between a "good patron" and a "bad patron," for the desperate and the needy, can be everything. The author remarks that this system fails to secure good outcomes and security for those at bottom while enforcing their dependency on socioeconomic superiors. Ultimately, she argues, it is indicative of a social system in which power is concentrated in the hands of a few, versus distributed amongst the people, in the form of viable institutions and public goods.
Chapter 3 Analysis
Chapter 3 is noteworthy in that it begins with a harsh rebuke of its intended object, before describing and analyzing that object. The author's own position on the subject of this chapter, the "dual ethic" of class relations in Bom Jesus, is clear: "The first is the ethic of open and balanced reciprocity. It is the ethic of the mata. The other is the ethic of patronage, of paternalismo, of misplaced loyalties and self-colonizing dependencies" (98).
To the reader, the immediate effect of this blunt claim is to set up a rhetorical wager, to prove it; the implication is that the author's confidence proves how easy this will be. The concept of the "dual ethic" Scheper-Hughes describes refers to the contrasting codes regulating behavior among and between classes in Bom Jesus and the Alto. The centers of this dual ethic are "solidarity" and "dependency," respectively. Behind this duality however, is a deeper yet obvious truth: the deprivation of those at the bottom, and the desperation this lack engenders, is a lack of social power. From here, those at the bottom are forced into social relationships against their own will. Put more simply, the crux of the "dual ethic" is that those at the bottom need those at the top, more than those at the top need those at the bottom. It is this asymmetrical power balance that drives the conflict, resentment, sentimentality, and theater of these behaviors.
The solidarity amongst the pobres is noteworthy, as it illustrates the attempt of a social system to function―that is, to protect its members―amidst a situation of unavoidable, material want. It contrasts strongly with the stereotypes of antisocial pathology used to describe the working poor. However, the author wishes to prove that the earnest spirit of this solidarity, although commendable, is ultimately ineffective in meeting the needs of those affected; petitions still must be made to a patroa. These petitions are as theatrical as they are contrived; the scenario with Dona Irene and Seu Félix illustrates how little stake actually exists between these parties, as Seu Félix's power and privilege carries with it no responsibility. Other interactions transform social obligation into a sentimental spectacle, in which giving or withholding is up to a patron's "moral character."However, the author insists that the relative "goodness" or "badness" of a particular patron, or the average patron of Bom Jesus is irrelevant; instead, the danger of this system is the dependency it engenders between lower and upper classes, and its comfort with the continual disempowerment of those at the bottom to change their fortunes through formal, organized means.
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