Includes bibliographical references (leaves 72-79). / The following study is an ethnographic exploration into young people’s entangled experiences of health and illness in relation to both HIV/AIDS and traditional forms of healing. The research employed a creative, didactic methodology based around a series of workshops conducted with two non-governmental organisations based in Grahamstown’s peri-urban townships: The first, Siyapumelela, maintains a focus on youth and HIV/AIDS; the second, Sakhuluntu, is a cultural group aimed at keeping young people off the streets. The argument begins by challenging the dichotomous relationship that is maintained between Modern Scientific Medicine and traditional forms of healing and calls for a dual standard system in which both epistemologies can be free to operate according to their own medical standards. The study explores young people’s therapeutic environments and tracks, in particular, how young people talk about and represent HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS is discussed as a concept metaphor; a domain term that orients a person towards areas of shared exchange and meaning. It is clear that most young people have a well-informed biomedical understanding of HIV/AIDS, yet metaphorically, they see it as a dangerous and destructive force; an uncertain threat in the world. The research poses the question as to why young people continue to put themselves at risk of contracting HIV by exploring the social environments which many young people are subject to – environments that are often characterised by extreme social structural violence. The argument examines the nature of social structural violence as it plays itself out in the everyday lives of the participants and identifies the kinds of challenges that many of them face on a day-to-day basis. Due to fragmented avenues of support and conditions of domestic fluidity, many young people from structurally violent communities are left with feelings of vulnerability and insecurity. Alongside experiences of social and structural insecurity, young people also harbour a sense of spiritual insecurity that stems from the dissolution of the ancestral cult as a result of the historical, yet persisting, fragmentation and reorganisation of the African family unit. The research discusses a form of spirit possession known as Amakhosi that young people engage in in order to (re)gain a sense of security and protection from forces beyond their control.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-18T18:53:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese-JaciraNascimentoSerra.pdf: 1332591 bytes, checksum: 5373557aba8007be3e02ef3d44f4e0b6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-05-19 / "Violence against the elderly: a look at the social - structural violence in different scenarios of life " is a doctoral thesis in which I try to understand and interpret the lives of elderly people immersed in poverty , seeking meanings for the various types social - structural violence , in different scenarios : a) my doctor's office ; b) Outpatient Service of Elderly Care of the Hospital Dr. Carlos Macieira of the State of Maranhão; c) Health clinic in the village Embratel / extension project UFMA (Federal University of Maranhão). The theme was contextualised through the contribution of different authors, in heterogeneous thoughts, aiming to enhance the discussions about the current, complex, multidimensional phenomena of the analytic categories that guide the research: aging, poverty, violence, social-structural violence. I used qualitative research, in that I propose to understand dimensions of daily life, the routine of being "poor old man" in the contemporary world. Adopted as a methodological procedures for collecting the testimony of the "elderly men, elderly women", the focus group technique as a way to understand the assumptions; besides "observation record " and " daily listening". About 4 or 5 meetings were held in each of the focus groups, each group consisting from 10 to 12 seniors, from 56 to 94 years old, of both genders, with a predominance of elderly widowed women living with family. I defined four themes of social-structural violence: a) the violence of myths and prejudices; b) the violence of disrespect; c) violence of the relations of care, and d) the violence of the structure of the scenario of poverty itself. Although being present in the structure of Capital, violence, in its various forms, is still not perceived as a matter of character and public health, to which typifications of social and structural violence are not envisioned by being in the midst of the iceberg of conflictual and violent relations in the daily elderly men and elderly women in contemporary society. / A violência contra a pessoa idosa: um olhar sobre a violência estrutural-social em distintos cenários de vida é um trabalho de tese de doutorado em que procuro compreender e interpretar a vida das pessoas idosas imersas na pobreza, buscando significados para as diversas tipologias da violência estrutural-social, em diversos cenários: meu consultório médico; Ambulatório do Serviço de Atenção Integral ao Idoso do Hospital do Servidor do Estado do Maranhão Dr. Carlos Macieira; Posto de Saúde da Vila Embratel/projeto de extensão da UFMA (Universidade Federal do Maranhão). A temática foi contextualizada através da contribuição de diferentes autores, numa heterogeneidade de pensamentos, com o objetivo de enriquecer as discussões a cerca dos fenômenos atuais, complexos, multidimensionais das categorias analíticas que norteiam a pesquisa: envelhecimento, pobreza, violência, violência estrutural-social. Utilizei a pesquisa qualitativa, na medida em que me proponho compreender dimensões da vida diária, da rotina de ser velho pobre no mundo contemporâneo. Adotei como um dos procedimentos metodológicos para a coleta do depoimento das velhas e velhos , a técnica de Grupo Focal como forma de compreender os pressupostos; além da observação com registro e o diário de escuta . Foi realizado 4-5 encontros em cada um dos grupos focais, cada grupo composto por 10-12 idosos, com idades entre 56 e 94 anos, de ambos os sexos, com predominância das mulheres velhas, viúvas, morando com a família. Delineie quatro eixos temáticos da violência estrutural-social: a violência dos mitos e preconceitos; a violência do (des)respeito; a violência das relações do cuidado, e a violência da estrutura do cenário da pobreza, propriamente dita. Apesar de presente na estrutura do Capital a violência nas suas mais diversas formas continua não sendo percebida como uma questão de caráter e de saúde pública, em que as tipificações da violência-estrutural social, não são vislumbradas por estarem no bojo do iceberg das relações conflituosas e violentas no cotidiano de velhas e velhos na sociedade contemporaneidade.