El género de la deuda. Circulación de la deuda social entre mujeres de Ciudad Juárez, México

Abstract

The intention of this paper is to analyze the social debt contracted by women in southeastern Ciudad Juarez (Mexico), within the theoretical framework of feminist economic anthropology based on ethnographic data collected there during 2012 at a Nutrition Club where Herbalife is served. Affections, prestige and honor all circulate as women care for themselves, as material, symbolic, emotional and corporal exchanges take place, thus initiating specific forms of sociality and new relationships. Gifts, as a system of reciprocities, generate and sustain bonds of trust; debt itself can become ambivalent, like the femininity of these women, which is questioned and reconstructed amid of oppressive contexts.

Keywords

• Social debt
• gifts
• women
• economic anthropology
• feminism