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Cited by 111Migration, Health and TraumaMigration, Identity, and HealthMedicine, History, and Philosophy

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 41 of the 41 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

“Traveling Pains”: Embodied Metaphors of Suffering Among Southern Sudanese Refugees in Cairo

Coker, Elizabeth Marie·2004·Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry
DOI 10.1023/b:medi.0000018096.95218.f4
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Abstract

This paper presents the results of a larger study conducted among Southern Sudanese refugees in Cairo, Egypt. "Illness talk" and body metaphors are the focus of the present work, which is based mainly on an analysis of the illness narratives of people attending a church-run medical clinic. The findings suggest that refugees use certain narrative styles in discussing their illnesses that highlight the interconnection of bodily ills and refugee-related trauma. The refugees narrated the histories of their illnesses in terms consistent and coterminous with their refugee histories, and articulated illness causes in terms of threatening assaults on their sense of self as human beings and as part of a distinct community and culture. The use of embodied metaphors to understand and cope with their current and past traumatic experiences was echoed in narratives that were nonillness related. Metaphors such as "the heart," "blood," and "body constriction" were consistently used to discuss social and cultural losses. Understanding the role that the body plays in experience and communication within a given cultural context is crucial for physicians and others assisting refugees.

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Citations

Cites

Research works printed but not linked: 14

  1. Bourdieu, Pierre 1984 Distinction. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  2. Csordas, Thomas J. 1994 Embodiment and Experience: The Existential Ground and Self. Cambridge University Press.
  3. Das, Veena 1997 Language and the Body: Transactions in the Construction of Pain. In Social Suffering. A. Kleinman, V. Das, and M. Lock, eds., pp. 67-91. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  4. Douglas, Mary 1973 Natural Symbols. New York: Vintage Books.
  5. Foucalt, Michel 1977 What Is an Author? In Language, Counter-Memory, Practice. Donald F. Bouchard, ed., pp.124-127.Ithica, NY: Cornell University Press.
  6. Frazer, James G. 1890[1981] The Golden Bough. New York: Gramercy Books.
  7. Jablensky, Assen, A.J. Marsella, Solvig Ekblad, Lennart Levi, and Bengt Jansson 1992 The International Conference on the Mental Health and Well-Being of the World's Refugees and Displaced Persons. Stockholm, Sweden, October 6-11, 1991. NewYork: Oxford University Press.
  8. Thomas J. Csordas, ed., pp.163-182. Cambridge Studies in Medical Anthropology. New York: Cambridge University Press.
  9. Johnson, D.H. 2003 Root Causes of Sudan's Civil Wars. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press.
  10. Kleinman, A. 1989 The Illness Narratives: Suffering, Healing and the Human Condition. New York: Basic Books.
  11. Kugelmann, Robert 1997 Narratives of Chronic Pain. In The Anthropology of Medicine: From Culture to Method, 3rd ed. Lola Romanucci-Ross, Daniel E. Moerman, and Laurence R. Tancredi, eds., pp. 254–272. Westport: Bergin and Garvey.
  12. Low, Setha M. 1994 Embodied Metaphors: Nerves as Lived Experience. In Embodiment and Experience: The Existential Ground of Culture and Self. Cambridge Studies in Medical Anthropology. Thomas J. Csordas, ed., pp. 139-162. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  13. Seligman, C.G., and B.Z. Seligman 1965 Pagan Tribes of the Nilotic Sudan. New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
  14. Young, Allan 1997 Suffering and the Origins of Traumatic Memory. In Social Suffering. A. Kleinman, V. Das, and M. Lock, eds., pp. 245-260. Berkeley: University of California Press.

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Metadata

Authors
Coker, E. M.
Affiliations
American University in Cairo (EG)
Corresponding author
Coker, Elizabeth Marie
Venue
Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2004-03
Volume
28
Issue
1
Pages
15-39
ISSN
  • 0165-005X (ISSN-L)
  • 1573-076X
DOI
10.1023/b:medi.0000018096.95218.f4
OpenAlex
W2000779100
Cited by
111
References
41
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 2
FWCI
5.20
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
Locations
  • Culture Medicine and Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
American University in Cairo
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Migration, Health and Trauma
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Migration, Identity, and Health
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Medicine, History, and Philosophy
Keywords
illness narratives, embodied metaphor, refugee trauma, body metaphor, selfhood, heart metaphor, refugee health, cultural context of illness, coping with trauma
MeSH terms
Attitude to Health, Culture, Depression, Egypt, Humans, Pain, Refugees, Sudan, Travel, Metaphor

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